Furuba 2
by Ami Meitsu
Summary: Meet the new Zodiac! After the curse broke it came back to new Sohmas, only this time they're mostly girls! When Taji Hadoko, a high school boy, comes across the Sohmas he's invited to live with them. **Older story. Will NOT continue.**
1. Introduction

Furuba 2 Intro

The Zodiac

(So far)

**Haraki Sohma:** (16, the rat) a generally nice girl who can be mysterious, at school she's called Princess Haraki.

**Kari Sohma:** (16, the cat) A girl with a bit of a temper, she hates leeks and Haraki, mostly Haraki.

**Seiya Sohma:** (26, the dog) A gentle but playful manga artist. She is the older cousin of Haraki and Kari. (Yes, she has a boy's name)

**Yuta Sohma:** (18, The Boar) Determined and Headstrong Yuta doesn't let anything stand in his way. It's often been hinted that he may like Kari.

**Michiru Sohma:** (15, the rabbit) Michiru is playful, yet serious she's older than she looks.

**Himeko Sohma:** (26, the dragon) Hatori's daughter, family doctor to the Sohmas the only thing she can't cure is her broken heart.

**Haruka Sohma:** (15, the cow) generally a nice girl, until she goes black, then you better watch out. Wears a boy's uniform in school.

**Rina Sohma:** (19, the head) A generally gentle girl, but can be violent when she wants too, Akito's daughter

Taji & Friends

**Taji Hadako: **(16) The main character in this story. He's a confident boy who tends to look on the bright side. He's confident and won't let anything stop him.

**Ryou Tsukio: **(16) One of Taji's friends, he talks tough and can fight well. He does have a soft spot for his friends and will always defend them.

**Hiroki Reatsu: **(16) Taji's other friend, he's dark and like Megumi, he puts curses on people.

Notes

Furuba 2 takes place after the manga; the story is that the curse broke but years later it mysteriously came back.

Akito is gentler but will get violent, and since this follows the manga story line Akito is a girl. Her hair is still short, because she soon cut it after it grew out, saying that it felt weird.

Rina (Akito's Daughter) Has now taken over a the family head with Akito helping her. She's gentle and tends to be understanding.

Rina is not exactly cursed and is not frail, but Akito believes there may be a small bond between her and the Zodiac.

Ren still doesn't like Akito but… She has a liking for Rina. (Yeah, I LIKE Ren)

And, even though this is after the manga Akito is NOT with Shigure, in other words…Akito has someone else.

The uniforms Taji, Haraki, Kari and later Haruka and Michiru wear are just like the ones in the orginal _Fruits Basket _

Most of the Zodiac are now girls instead of guys, with some genders being the same.

**Furuba 2 Art:** (Left-To-Right: Haraki, Kari, Yuta (Boar), Taji, Michiru, Himeko, Seiya) Remove the spaces

_http:// i248. photobucket .com/ albums / gg186 / DropsOfIndigo /FanArt /Furuba2 .jpg _

Coming Soon: Furuba 2 Character Collection

Done: Himeko, Seiya


	2. Episode 1 A Strange Twist

**Furuba 2**

**Episode 1-A strange twist**

On a sunny day in Tokyo a boy in the woods looked up to the sky, a tent sat behind him "Ah such a nice day" he said. Then he went in the tent "Look after the place mom I'm off" and he started walking.

_Hey I'm Taji Hadako I didn't always live in a tent, up until last April I lived with my mom until the accident._

Taji continued to walk until he saw a house "huh?"

_Check it out mom I didn't know there was a house here…_

"Hey" he said, noticing something, they were small figures. _'Cool' he thought 'they're the figures from the Chinese zodiac.' _Then he heard a voice.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is there a strange boy standing on my porch?" A young woman asked. She had long black hair with part of her bangs over to one side and the other with no bangs; she had brown eyes, and wore a purple skirt, & pink top covered by a short sleeve lavender sweater that went to her elbows, she was holding a book as well.

"Sorry" Taji told her "I'm not intruding am I?"

"No harm done" the woman replied "I just set them out to dry, but it's amazing that these small things could interest you so much."

"I've always been fascinated with the Zodiac, but I should have known you left out the cat." "The cat?" The woman gave him a questioning look.

"Yeah you see my mom told me the story when I was younger…"

Flashback

You see a little Taji on a mat and his mom lying next to him "One time God invited all the animals for a banquet, and told them to come the next day, when the rat heard he decided to play a trick on his friend the cat, so he told him the banquet was the day after tomorrow, so the next day all the animals went to the banquet and were lead by the rat riding on the ox, and they had a wonderful time except for the poor cat who missed the whole thing."

The little Taji Sighed.

"Taji why are you sighing?" his mom asked.

"Because of the poor cat I know I won't be a dog, I'll be cat and then he'll have a friend!" The little boy said with determination.

End Flashback

"Hmm" the woman said when he was finished "I wonder what she'll say when she hears she has a fan" she muttered.

"She?" this time it was Taji's turn to give her a questing look.

"Never mind" the woman stated waving her hand. "So you were born in the year of the dog I knew there was a strange aura about you."

Then another girl spoke up from behind "You're not bothering him are you?" This one had silver hair a little bit past her shoulders, a long bang on one side and purple eyes; she wore blue school uniform, and held a black bag.

Taji recognized this girl _'Haraki Sohma?'_ He thought _'I can't believe it Haraki Sohma the princess of my high school is here.' _

"No we were just talking" the woman told Haraki "by the way I'm Seiya Sohma Haraki's older cousin" She stated to Taji.

Haraki looked at Taji "What brings you here?" she asked.

"I live nearby and should probably go" he said.

"Wait" Haraki said "Since you're here why don't we walk together?"

"Uh sure" Taji followed Haraki.

Walking

"Hey Haraki!" Some boys called on the street.

She ignored them.

"HARAKI!" they shouted.

School

At the school 3 boys circled around Taji "So what were you doing with Haraki this morning?" One, Kakeru, asked seriously.

"It was a coincidence" Taji stated confidently.

"That better be it because, everyone knows Haraki is the best looking girl in the school and we are Haraki's fan club so we have first dibs" another one, Keiichiro, said.

"Hey!" another boy (Taji's friend Ryou) said "he said it was a coincidence no back of before all of you get your heads smashed."

"Hold it!" they said "we're not afraid of you!"

Then his other friend Hiroki stepped in "Back off or all of you are gonna be _Beep_ with curses" They ran, and Ryou went over to Taji "They give me a head ache, don't let them mess with you, and Hiroki don't really curse anyone."

Later the boys sat in a cooking class "So why were you with Haraki anyway?" Ryou asked. "Strange girl" Hiroki stated.

"Oh here we go Hiroki's report…"

"I'm serious" Hiroki told them "she has a strange aura about her I know it."

"I guess she is kind of mysterious I heard that one of those boys tried to ask her out once but she just pushed him back and left him there in the hall" Ryou said. "Anyway what about you, you've been working a lot lately, you're having trouble paying for tuition aren't you?"

"No, well yes" Taji admitted to him.

"Interesting" Hiroki said "I didn't think tuition here was too expensive and I never remember you having to work this hard."

"So what's the deal?" Ryou asked seriously. "Your grandfather's feeding you right? He's not taking your money is he?"

"No, No" Taji said "it's not that at all."

"I know I worry" Ryou said.

Taji looked at him and started thinking _'Ry would kill me if he knew…' _You see after mom died there were tons of people I could have stayed with but I chose my grandfather, he was always so nice to me… But he's retired now and living off of his savings, so I told him I'd work for tuition. Then after 4 months the house needed some repairs so grandpa went to live with his daughter and her family, he asked if I could stay with a friend, but Hiroki's in a large family and Ryou lives in a one room apartment, so I couldn't ask them… Then it came to me! If I could somehow live on my own everyone would be happy!

Later

Haraki was putting her white slippers in her locker and saw Taji next to her.

"Hey" Taji said.

"Oh Mr. Hadako it seems as if we're making a habit of bumping into each other."

They walked home together since they went the same way; it was a long way so Taji tried starting a conversation. "I liked meeting your cousin this morning." Taji told Haraki. "She was nice, and those figures were pretty cool but she left out the cat."

Haraki paused "cats, truly useless, foolish creatures"

"Huh?" Taji looked at her.

"Tell me Mr. Hadako how familiar are you with the Chinese zodiac?" Haraki asked.

"Well I know the stories my mom used to tell me" he replied.

Haraki continued "did you know that it was nothing more than a calendar? A way to tell the passing of time, only later was it used for things like astrology and fortune telling, no one knows how or when the animals came in, all I know is that the cat has never been included, though it still yearns to be accepted, like I said a truly foolish animal."

"Sounds like you really don't like cats" Taji said.

Haraki smiled at him and took one of the flying leaves form the air "I noticed that this morning your starting to look a bit pale, you should really take better care of yourself" she walked off. "Maybe we'll run into each other again…"

'_Hmm'_ Taji thought _'She's mysterious, but I'll pretend I didn't hear that pale remark I can't let anything bring me down.'_

Night Time

At a big building a guy opened the door to see a confidently spaced out Taji; he was supposed to be working. "Hey are you gonna let this trash sit here all night?" he asked.

"Right!" Taji said as he started to clean. _'Like I say don't give up!'_

Later, Haraki, now wearing a blue skirt and light red shirt walked home through the woods with Seiya, both of them had just come from dinner. "If we keep eating out I'm gonna have to buy another sweater" Seiya joked.

"Well then, why don't you do the cooking?" Haraki asked her cousin.

"Because." Seiya started. "Every time I cook you complain."

"Pickled radish and curry is not dinner it's disgusting." Haraki stated. "I think one complaint is sufficient enough."

"You know Haraki you've got a good head on your shoulders if only you'd apply it to some house work. I know let's get a house keeper" Seiya suggested.

"No." Haraki told her, then she looked over to the side and saw Taji walking. "Mr. Hadako?" she said.

In the tent Taji looked at a picture, it was his mother. "Hey mom, I know it's late but I've got work to do, I think I'll just wash up a bit." Outside he saw Haraki and Seiya staring right at him Seiya giggled for awhile, Haraki sighed.

The Sohma house

After taking Taji to their house the girls and Taji sat at a table.

"So that's where you were." Haraki said. "I knew it was odd that we'd suddenly have new neighbors, you see all of this land is Sohma property."

"Oh." Taji said. "I didn't know, but if you could let me stay for a little while longer I'd appreciate it and I could pay you."

"You know…" Seiya interrupted. "The woods aren't a safe place for you to be living alone, with the bugs and the occasional weirdo."

"Don't worry!" Taji said with determination. "I can handle the bugs and if I can handle them I can handle anything, trust me!" Then he started to feel dizzy, he fell over a bit.

"Mr. Hadako!" Haraki said pressing her hand to his head. "You have a fever." she stated.

"Ice!" Seiya said standing up and opening a door to find a mess. "Huh?" she said with a shocked look.

Taji looked at the mess behind the door "and you call the woods unsafe?" he said.

"Well relatively speak…" then she paused and put her finger near her lips, listening to a wolf howl in the distance. "You hear that?" She said seriously. "There's just been another land slide somewhere."

"How do you know?" Taji asked.

"Let's just call it instinct." Seiya replied.

"Was it close?" Haraki asked.

"Near the ten... I mean not at all." Seiya said waving her hand.

They went outside and found a dirt heap covering the tent "Mom!" Taji said digging through it. "I have to…" he fell.

"Don't strain yourself." Seiya said. "We'll come back later when it's lighter out."

They took Taji back to the house and had him lay down.

"Hey." Seiya said as she sat next to him. "Haraki's looking for some Ice if you still want it." she said.

"I lost my home…again." Taji told her.

"Huh?" Seiya asked.

"Though I guess there are a lot worse things…"

"Like what?" Seiya asked.

"Like not telling mom _'be safe'_ on the day she died, I said that every morning, _'bye, be safe'_ except for that morning I had a test so I stayed up late studying, and I wasn't up to tell her to come home safe… and she never came back." He started to fall asleep, and Seiya sighed.

Then Haraki showed up. "It's amazing." Haraki said. "He always seemed so calm at school; you would have never thought he had so much trouble. I know that there were one or two times I wanted to leave the Sohmas but I always found a reason to stay, though I could have lived on my own, in the woods I could have done what he did."

"Hmm." Seiya took the ice and looked at him.

Haraki spoke again. "I'm going out." she said.

"You're not gonna try and dig up that tent are you..?" Seiya asked looking at her "…You are, aren't you? You want me to come with you it's a pretty big job for someone alone"

"Right." Haraki said. "But who said I was going alone?" she turned around and behind her were a bunch of rats.

"Be safe Haraki" Seiya told her.

"_Oh Taji you have a fever again…" A woman-Kikyo Hadako said hugging Taji. "You shouldn't strain yourself so much, all you have to do is be yourself, you'll be fine."_

Then Taji woke up and looked around "Mom?" he said then he saw her picture next to him. "Mom? But how..."

"Good Morning." Haraki said standing outside holding a couple of bags. "I got your stuff. I think it's everything but you can check." She set them on the porch.

"Haraki…" He said. "This must have taken you all night, so how?"

"It's a secret…" She said putting her finger on her lips. "Anyway I know the idea of living with two strange girls seems a bit awkward, but if you would like to stay you can."

Then Seiya came in. "Of course I intend to pay you for your services."

"Uh services?" Taji questioned.

"Yes." Seiya started. "As our brand new house keeper!" she said in a sing song voice, stretching out her arms. "We'll just take your things upstairs" she said.

"Wait!" Taji said. "I don't wanna bother so…"

"Mr. Hadako," Haraki interrupted. "We're doing this because we want to."

"Well then I'll work for room and board but that's it and I want to know all the rules of the house and…"

"Mr. Hadako don't worry about it all you have to do is be yourself deal?" she said as they went upstairs.

A little bit later Haraki was with Seiya, walking.

"You really think it's a good idea having a boy in the house?" Seiya asked.

"Of course it occurs to you now to worry." Haraki replied.

"But it'll be okay as long as he doesn't try to hug us."

As they walked a young girl watched them from a tree.

When they went back inside Haraki showed Taji his room _'Interesting'_ Taji thought standing in the doorway now wearing a white kimono with a purple sash _'I never imagined living with Haraki, or borrowing one of her kimonos' _

"Sorry about the stuffiness." she said, "We've had this room closed off for some time now." She said opening the window, then Taji heard cracking and looked up at the roof, in an instant it was broken by a girl. She had long orange hair down to her elbows, and was wearing dark blue jeans and a black shirt; she put her hand on her shoulder. "Time the pay the piper rat girl." she started. "I'm here to collect!"

"Funny" Haraki said. "I thought he would have sent someone bigger!"

"Oh you better get your tough talk out of the way now before I wipe that stupid grin off your face!" the girl said.

"No don't fight!" Taji said, he went toward them but he slipped and fell on the girl.

Then Seiya came up "Haraki? What were those crashing sounds I just heard? Kari's not here is she?"

"I'm so sorry!" Taji said, he looked at his hand, in them was not Kari, but an orange cat. "What… I…I turned her into a cat?! We need help! I have to…" then he ran into Seiya and Haraki who turned into a dog and a rat. _'What the?' I have to be dreaming everyone is turning into animals'_


	3. Episode 2 The Sohma Family curse

Episode 2- The Sohma family curse

Outside the Sohma house a mailman on a motor scooter pulled up, inside, Taji ran down the stairs with the animals in his arms. "We have to get a doctor!" he said. Once he was downstairs the door opened and he went straight to him. "Mr. Postman look! They're all animals!" he lifted them up a bit.

"Yes they are." The postman nodded. "Here's your mail."

"No! You don't understand!" Taji shook his head and the dog reached up and grabbed the letter out of the man's hand.

"Huh I wish my dog was that smart…" the postman gave the dog a pat and left. Taji slumped, after a minute he heard something.

"Damn it! How am I supposed to come up with an excuse if both of you transform too!" The cat hissed.

"Don't start!" the rat started. "This is all your fault you stupid cat!"

"Say that again" The cat hissed.

"Stupid cat" The rat said slyly.

Then the dog spoke "Both of you be quiet!"

'_They talk too..?'_ Taji thought.

"It's no use lying" the dog, apparently, Seiya said. "Taji I'm a dog, Haraki here she's a rat and that's Kari but don't let her temper scare you she's got a bit of chip on her shoulder."

Kari glanced at Seiya.

"Our family has lived with this curse for generations; it broke, and then came back." Seiya continued, ignoring Kari's glance. "When our bodies come under a great deal of stress or if we're hugged by someone of the opposite gender we transform into the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac."

Another glare from Kari. "Ahem."

"Sorry, the twelve animals and the cat." Seiya corrected herself. "We change back after sometime, but the only down side is well…" They changed back "…We're naked"

Taji turned the other way, a little freaked out.

Later Taji sat with Seiya and Haraki at the table in what could be perceived as a living room, Kari sat on the porch.

"We must seem pretty strange to you now huh?" Seiya asked.

"No, it's not your fault if your family's cursed." Taji stated.

Seiya glanced at Kari. "Anyway…" She said. "…Didn't you say you wish there was a year of the cat?"

"It was just an idea I had when I was younger…" Taji told her.

"Well what do you think now that you've seen the real thing?" she whispered and motioned toward Kari.

'_Right!'_ Taji thought. _It's the cat from the zodiac….'_

"Yes I know." Seiya started. "But the term 'cat like reflexes' doesn't really apply to her, the way she let you fall on her like that. And after all the martial arts training she's had… She's also got a bit of temper but she's okay, and she would probably tell you this herself if she wasn't over there brooding like a child."

Kari just seemed to get madder as Seiya talked, she stood up. "Shut up! If you're gonna talk about something then talk about him! He's not even supposed to be here!" She pointed to Taji.

"Who we allow into this house is none of your business." Haraki said coolly.

"Shut up!" Kari smashed the table; one part of it hit Taji.

"Mr. Hadako you're bleeding" Haraki said.

Taji looked at his head.

Haraki slapped Kari. "Now I'm gonna show you what happens when you come looking for a fight and this time I won't hold back." She went toward Kari.

"Haraki!" Taji said.

"Don't worry about it." Seiya said as she rubbed the blood off of his head with a cloth. "This goes back a lot father then just today." She put a bandage on his head and Taji watched the girls fight until Haraki sent Kari through the door and into the yard.

'_She sent her flying'_ Taji thought.

"Haraki try not to destroy the house, kay?" Seiya told her.

Haraki looked at her. "I didn't mean to send her into the yard." she said. "Are you okay?" she asked Taji.

"Yeah." he nodded.

"Well I should probably get ready." Haraki said to no one.

Taji looked at her for a second, the he realized something. "School!" he got up and rushed around in an attempt to get ready. "I'm late! I'm late!"

"You might not want to go in that uniform" Haraki said.

Taji looked down at his dirt covered black uniform.

"Suddenly he remembers his adventures in the woods…" Seiya said.

"I don't know." Taji said. "It doesn't look that bad, maybe no one will notice."

"Oh they'll notice." Seiya said. "But don't let me stop you, which reminds me I'll have to tell Rina of what went on here this morning…"

"Rina?" Taji asked.

"Yes." Seiya nodded. "She's the head of the family; we have to tell her, I mean we just gave away the big Sohma family secret."

"Oh." Taji said. "Well I better go." he left.

"Be safe" Seiya told him.

"Since when have you been so open about our family?" Haraki asked. "You're planning to erase Mr. Hadako's memories aren't you? Just like back then…"

"That's far from my intention, anyway too many people knew about us back then, I'm sure this will be different." Seiya told her.

Haraki looked at her. "Oh well, I'm going to school" she said as she headed up the stairs.

~School~

At school Taji stood outside a room with Ryou and Hiroki.

"Thanks for letting me, use the washing machine!" he said while looking at Ryou.

"Trust me I did us all a favor," Ryou said. "Now how did you get so dirty?"

Then Haraki's fan club showed up. "So what's the deal?' Kakeru asked. "Did Haraki shove you off?"

Hiroki stepped in _*beep, beep, beep*_ they took off and Hiroki went after them.

"Well I'm gonna go change…" Taji said.

Later, when he came out of the locker room, he saw Haraki waiting outside. "Did you tell them?" She asked.

"I told them I fell…" he replied, then he realized what she meant. "Oh about your secret! Of course not, mom said it wasn't right to gossip! Wait, you don't know me that well, but I can keep it! I'll write it in blood if you want!"

"That's not what I meant!" Haraki said. She stood in front of him with her hands on the wall. "I believe you when you say you can keep our secret, but we still might have to erase your memory. It won't harm you it's something like hypnotism, you'll just simply forget everything you saw this morning. I know because this has happened before, it happened when I was seven years old I was playing with some other children in the garden and didn't watch out. We had to erase every single one of those children's memories…"

~Flashback~

"Rina?" Young Haraki asked. "Am I really that strange? So strange we have to hide it from everyone?"

"Unfortunately yes." Little Rina replied. "Isn't it a bit strange for a girl to turn into a rat? Anyway there are too many people we have no choice…"

~End Flashback~

Haraki got off of him and walked off. "Sorry…"

"No! Wait…" Taji grabbed her arm.

She transformed.

"I am so sorry…" Taji said.

"It's okay as long as no one saw" she told him.

"What I mean is…" Taji started as he picked up the rat that was Haraki. "…Thank you for being concerned about me, and you can erase my memory but afterwards promise you'll be my friend." Haraki stared back at him, then she transformed back and Taji turned away.

"Sorry the time in which we transform back varies a bit…" She stated as she pulled on her top. After she was done she faced Taji again.

"Haraki where did you learn to tie a tie?"

"Huh?' Haraki looked down at the small crooked tie on the end of her uniform. " I guess I've never been good at this sort of thing…" She said.

Taji stepped in and fixed it "there…" he said after it was done.

Haraki looked at him.

"Can I walk you to class?" Taji asked.

"Sure" Haraki said and they took off. Haraki looked at Taji, still hearing Rina's voice in her head _'We have no choice…'_

"Thank you…" she stated.

Taji looked at her. "Don't worry about it; tying ties is no big deal."

They continued on.

Meanwhile Seiya was outside on a porch, sitting next to a young girl-Rina. She had long black hair with a long bang on the left, and she wore a white kimono with blue flower pattern on the bottom of it. She was lying on her back looking at the sky, her hair spread out. Rina's held her hand up; a little blue bird sat on her index finger.

"I think I can trust Mr. Hadako...For Haraki, Kari, and Myself." she stated with a gentle, but serious tone.

Seiya just watched her.

Later when Taji came home with Haraki it was quiet, too quiet...

"Seiya? We're home" Haraki said, getting no reply.

"I'm going upstairs" Taji said.

Haraki nodded then went into another room-Seiya's study. "Seiya?" she saw nothing. "Hmm… I guess she went out."

Upstairs Taji opened his door to find Kari there on a step ladder; he looked up at the spot on the roof, it was covered up now.

"Don't freak out." Kari told him. "It's only to keep the rain out; you can call someone to fix it better later."

"Thanks" Taji said.

Kari continued. "Listen…" She said. "I know that I can have a temper, especially around Haraki, heck I don't even know why I'm doing this but I guess I…" she didn't get to finish.

"Haraki? Taji? Are you here?" Seiya said from downstairs. "And Kari I hope you're not doing anything stupid and tearing up my house again!"

"Aw hell with it!" Kari said, she jumped out the window.

"Wait!" Taji called, but she was gone. _'Hm…'_ He thought. _'…was she-trying to apologize?'_ He sighed and went downstairs where he met up with Seiya. "Hey" he said.

She smiled at him. "Come with me" she said. Seiya took him into her study, "well I had a little talk with Rina, and she agrees that as long as you can keep our secret you can keep living here." "Thank you" he said. _'This is great! Now I can keep my memory'_ he thought.

'_Well mom guess I'm stayin' for awhile…' _

The next morning Taji decided to get started on keeping his end of the bargain-by cleaning, he worked as a janitor anyway so he thought it wouldn't be too big a deal. He was off- way off. Taji stood in front of a messy kitchen with Haraki, who was now wearing a dark pink Chinese style dress.

"I know it's a mess and I could help you if you want." She offered.

Seiya came up from behind. "Maybe you should stay back, I mean, the closest thing Haraki's seen to a mop is that hair cut of hers."

"No." Taji said. "I said I'd earn my keep and this is what I have to do."

"Very well then." Seiya said. "I'm gonna go find Kari and I'll be out with her for awhile but we should be back by lunch time."

"In that case I'll go out too" Haraki said.

After they left Taji just looked at the stuff around him. "What was I thinking?" He muttered. "I don't know where to start… but I don't give up that easily!" He started and spent a good 2 hours cleaning. He got done fast and had even set up lunch when Haraki came in.

"Wow." she said, "if I didn't know any better I would say that I walked into the wrong house." She glanced at the counter. "Since when do we have a rice cooker?" she asked.

"I found it in the trash!" Taji said. "And lunch is almost done."

When it was done they both sat at the table with a lot of food in front of them, it looked good. "This is delicious." Haraki said.

"Hmm…" Taji said. "Where's Seiya? She said that she and Kari would be back by lunch time." "Well shame on them, letting a good meal like this get cold." Haraki said.

"Oh!" Taji said. "You went out too didn't you? Where'd you go? Shopping?"

"No." Haraki started. "I just went out back to my secret base."

"Secret base?" Taji gave her a questioning look.

"Yes." Haraki said. "I can take you later if you want."

'_Cool'_ Taji thought. Then her looked at Haraki. _'Hmm, I guess I haven't got used to the idea of living here… but here I am having lunch with Haraki'_

Then the door opened and Seiya, who was now wearing a navy blue dress with a light blue sash came in with Kari who was wearing a black skirt, and dark purple shirt with a high black collar (like those school uniforms with the high collar back shirt underneath).

"Come on it wasn't that bad!" Seiya said.

"Shut up! You just like jerking me around for your own amusement!" Kari told her.

"I wasn't fun!" Seiya continued. "Okay, it was a little fun, but remember, it was Rina's decision!"

"Shut Up! I don't give a damn about Rina!" Kari snapped.

"Uh Kari..?" Taji said. "Lunch is ready…"

"Shut Up!" Kari slammed the door.

"Kari! Don't take this out on Taji! And don't slam the doors! And take your shoes off!" Seiya snapped as she took off her heeled shoes.

"Well you're setting a fine example…" Haraki pointed out.

"Hey, I've never seen you in a dress like that before, it looks good on you" Taji complimented. "Thanks" Seiya said as she looked at him, then she noticed the table. "Lunch is ready…"

"So what's with Kari?" Taji asked.

"She's mad because I made her take an entrance exam" Seiya replied as she sat down.

"Entrance Exam?" Haraki asked. "For what?"

"Funny you should ask…" Seiya told her. "As of today Kari is the newest student at your school…" "

Get out!' Haraki said, she obviously pissed. "Don't you take a signal bite! Get out!"

"I knew you might be mad…" Seiya said. "And she's also going to be living with us from now on, I guess Rina thought it would keep her from going away again."

Haraki looked at her.

"Huh?" Taji said.

"Well" Seiya said. "Kari pulled a bit of a vanishing act on us, she just up and disappeared for four months and you know where she went? To the mountains for training."

"Let me guess" Haraki said "She's been mediating under waterfalls and fighting bears?"

"I think that's a little more elaborate then what it actually was." Seiya told her.

'_Huh…'_ Taji thought as he looked at them.

The next day at school, Kari, wearing a modified blue school uniform, with rolled up sleeves, no tie, a longer skirt and a separate shirt underneath, was being surrounded by a bunch of kids.

"So do you really think she's Princess Haraki's cousin?" Kakeru asked.

"I don't know-I mean she doesn't look like her." Keiichiro said.

Kari sat back; they were starting to freak her out.

While this happened Taji stood in the back of the room with Ryou, and Hiroki. "Strange girl." Hiroki said.

Haraki walked by.

"Hey! Question," Ryou said to her. "This new girl is she really your cousin?"

"That seems to be the rumor going around, and I'd like to leave it at that." Haraki said in a mysterious tone as she moved on.

The boys just watched her while another fan clubber-Kureno looked at Kari. "You think she's like Haraki? Huh?"

Then Kari lost it, she got up and flipped him, holding one of his arms behind him. He struggled. "Kari I don't think that's a good idea…" Taji said.

Kari let him go. "Leave me alone!" She shouted as she opened the window and jumped. She landed on all fours and ran.

"That proves it she has to be Princess Haraki's cousin!" Kakeru stated.

"Hey what about me?" Kureno said seriously. "I'm the one who just got my arm ripped off!" The boys talked and Ryou laughed "That was Hilarious! She looked like a cat trying to get out of a bath!"

Taji watched her run, and sighed. _'Poor Kari…'_


	4. Episode 3 Diffrences in Everyone

Episode 3-Differences in everyone

Taji watched Kari run as everyone talked. _'Poor Kari'_ he thought.

Meanwhile Kari sat in the courtyard panting.

"You really are stupid." Haraki said as she walked up to her.

"Shut up, why do you wanna go here anyway? With all these crazy people!" Kari asked her. "You sound like my parents they wanted me to go to an all girls school too, and that's why I came here. Besides that what you did really was stupid." Haraki told her.

"Shut up" Kari said while standing up. "You can talk all you want; because one day I'll beat you and then I'll become a true member of this family!"

What she didn't know is that while looking for her, Taji heard what she said, and when she went toward Haraki he stopped her.

"What the?" Kari said, now transformed.

"Sorry, but it's what I had to do, I mean fighting at school can get you in trouble and on your first day…"

"SHUT UP!" Kari shouted. "I don't care! Just stay the hell away from me!"

"Okay" Taji said while walking away. _'She hates me that's all there is to it…' _He thought sadly. "You truly are an idiot," Haraki told Kari, then, she left.

Kari just put her paw on her uniform and brought it closer to her.

Inside Taji sat in the hall dazed and thinking. _'I can't believe she hates me, I don't know what I did, but I've never been hated before.'_ He thought.

At that moment Hiroki showed up with Ryou. "There he is!" Hiroki said.

"Huh?" Taji stood up, accidentally hitting his head on the box above him. "Ow!" He said as he rubbed his head.

"You okay?" Ryou asked as he looked him over a bit.

"Sure" he replied.

-Seiya's house-

Meanwhile Kari sat in the hall outside Seiya's office, talking.

Seiya, now wearing a black skirt, and blue shirt, listened while drawing.

"I don't wanna live in this house anymore…" Kari told her.

"Come on." Seiya said. "You lived on a mountain for four months, I think you can endure more than two days here…" She paused and then started drawing again.

"But it's crazy and the school's filled with too many people."

"Well…" Seiya told her. "…You just need to practice at it. For example, I know that you could smash this table to bits with your bare hands, but I also know you can choose not to break it, because I know your training has taught you how to control your anger, or at least it should since you spent all that time fighting bears and what not." She paused again.

"I did not fight bears!" Kari glared at her.

"Anyway, you may have a black belt in martial arts but you still have a white belt in people skills, and you know, one day you're going to meet someone who truly wants to be friend and you're going to have to accept it."

Then Haraki came in "I'm home!" she said as Kari slipped away down the hall.

"Taji's not with you?" Seiya asked. "

No he had to work tonight, but he said he'll be home around eleven.."

-Nighttime-

"See you tomorrow…" Taji said before he left. While he walked he peered up at the sky. '_Huh, everyone's probably still asleep, and Kari, I wonder if she got something to eat, if she wasn't to mad to eat again.' _

As he walked he started to hear a noise. _'What's that?'_ He wondered. _'Maybe an animal or it could be one of those weirdoes Seiya told me about!'_

"Yah!" Taji reached back and hit something with his book bag, then looked back. "Huh?" he found himself staring at Kari. "I am so sorry" he said.

Kari blinked and started walking.

"Wait!" Taji said. "I really am sorry I was stretching and uh..." He stopped and Kari looked at him.

"Look…" She started. "…About earlier I guess I didn't really mean what I said and… uh just hit me again if you're angry!"

Taji looked at her. '_Could it be she's trying to apologize? And a couple days ago…' _"Oh I'm sorry I hit you. I just… well I thought you were a stalker," he said.

"Great," Kari muttered.

"No not like that! I could never think that in real life, I mean I've always liked the cat from the zodiac and I was really glad when I met you." He said.

Kari just looked and remembered what Seiya told her _"One day you're gonna meet someone who truly wants to be your friend…" _"What are you?" Kari asked, trying to cover up the slight happiness in her. "A year of the cat fan club? Come on." She walked and Taji followed.

"I'm coming!" He said.

'_Well looks like everything's gonna be fine.'_ He thought.

The next morning at breakfast everyone sat down. "Well Taji, told me about you're little adventure n the woods last night…" Seiya told Kari. "Kari's a stalker, Kari's a stalker!" she sang.

"You can be so full of it!" Kari yelled at her.

"You know…" Taji told Kari. "…I'm really glad you're eating, and I'd really like to see you at the table like this more often, so how do you like the food?"

"Huh?" Kari paused and looked at her chopsticks then noticed Haraki. "What do you want?" She said.

"Nothing, just looking." Haraki replied.

"You were staring at me!" Kari said.

Then Taji cut in. "So do you like the food?"

"No I don't!" Kari said, referencing Haraki in that, Taji looked at her, he was shocked no one ever said his food was horrible.

Kari just looked back at him.

-School-

Later that day, in school, Kari sat with Taji, Hiroki, and Ryou. "Hey guys I have an idea." Taji said. "Let's play rich man-poor man."

"I don't wanna play, play with that damn Haraki." Kari muttered.

"Running away from a challenge?" Ryou started. "You must be some kind of sissy girl!"

"Shut up!" Kari said. "I'll play but don't cry when you lose."

"Okay how about this!" Ryou said. "Loser cleans the whole classroom by _herself._"

"Maybe Haraki would like to play too…" Taji said. "Hey Haraki do you want to play rich man-poor man…?" He looked around. "Huh? You're not here."

Haraki wasn't there because she was in the hallway ,with a boy. "I'm sorry…" She said.

"Don't say that!" He said. "It took me a lot courage to ask you out, but you just reject me. You don't want to get close to anyone so you Haraki?"

Haraki looked back at him for a minute, then left.

Meanwhile the class was watching the rich man-poor man match.

"Revolution" Kari said.

"What the? ! What kind of cheap-ass tricks are you trying to pull?" Ryou asked him.

"Hmm…" Taji said. "Revolution makes all high cards low right?"

"Wait!" Hiroki interrupted. "Reverse revolution."

They all looked at him.

"All right Hiroki! Go for it!" Ryou said.

"Hey!" Kari said. "You have to be cheating!"

"Aww," one of the boys said. "You're just mad because you were beaten."

"Shut up" she said.

"Don't be mad" another one said.

Haraki came in and stood by the door, watching them.

-Later-

Haraki talked with Taji while Kari ran back and forth mopping. "You really should play, it's fun!" Taji told Haraki.

"Well I know the rules but I never have so… maybe."

Taji smiled and turned to Kari. "Hey Kari you want some help?" He asked.

"No." Kari replied. "I lost and I have to take it." She continued cleaning.

"So another thing you've lost?" Haraki asked.

"Shut up! You know one day I will beat you!" Kari told her.

"Wait, Wait I think I've heard this before," Haraki said in a sarcastic tone. "All right let's go! You and me! Right Now!" Kari then went forward, ready to punch Haraki when Haraki kicked her.

"Well I have a student council meeting," Haraki said as she left.

"Damn it," Kari said while rubbing her cheek. "Why can't I ever kick her in the head for a change?"

Taji looked at her.

-Nighttime-

Taji was busy getting changed back into his regular clothes in the locker room when he heard two men talking. They seemed to be discussing something they'd seen…

"Go look outside," One of the guys said. "I don't remember the last time I saw such a pretty face."

"I know." The other said. "She's very pretty for such a young girl."

'_Could that be... ?'_ Taji thought, then he went outside, and sure enough, outside the building was a familiar girl with silver hair. "Haraki?"

"Hey," she said.

"Wow…." Taji started. "Escorts two nights in a row, you Sohmas know how to treat people." Haraki smiled and they started walking, but she seemed distracted.

"Hey Haraki…" Taji said. "If you've got something on your mind you can tell me if you want." She looked at him as two guys came up to them. "Hey lovebirds go home!" one said as he shoved Taji into Haraki.

"Of course I wouldn't want to talk to me if I kept turning me into a rat…" Taji told her.

"No," Haraki told him. "I'm the one with the curse."

They started walking again with Taji carrying Haraki's dress and shoes. After a minute or so Haraki started to speak. "Mr. Hadako about Kari…" She started, she figured that he might want to know what he problem with him was. "She's shy when she first meets people but once she gets to know them she can open up to them, be herself. You see, because of what she is Kari can never be accepted into the zodiac, but isn't it better that she can be accepted by normal people for who she is? That is what I've always wanted…."

'_Wow…'_ Taji thought. _'I wonder what Kari would think if she knew Haraki admired her a bit.'_ He stopped in his tracks as Haraki changed back. "This is bad…" She said as it started to rain. "Huh…" Taji said. "The forecast didn't call for rain."

As they walked the rain seemed to get heavier and harder, and once they were at home Haraki took Taji around to the back of the house. "What are we doing back here?" he asked, she didn't give an answer. "Haraki?" He asked again.

She ignore him and took him to what looked like a small garden. "Where are we?" he asked. Haraki brought out a blue cover and looked at him "This is my secret base; it's a garden I take care of."

'_I get it,'_ he thought. _'She wants to protect it.'_ "I'll help!" Taji said. "Just tell me what to do." Haraki looked at him. "Okay," she said. "Grab one end of this and pull it down."

They then grabbed ends on opposite sides of the tarp, and Haraki tried to make it stick down. "Thank you," she said. "You are really a good person, to help me, unlike myself."

"Huh?" Taji looked at her. "But you…"

"Yes, I may seem kind but really I think I do it because of the image I have, I can be selfish and I know I use kindness as a way to get people to like me."

Taji looked at her. "Well… you know kindness is something you have to learn I mean we never know what it is, at least that's what mom always said. When we're born all we can do is want, we want food, we want warmth, and we want comfort, but kindness-that's something you learn as you go." The cover then flew up in their faces, they pulled it back down and Haraki looked at Taji, he continued. "So I guess some people are just more kind then others depending on how they learn it, and maybe I'm being kind so people will like me too..."

"I don't think you could if you tried." Haraki said. She smiled as the rain slowly diminished, and after it did, they stood up.

"We saved the base," Taji said.

"Yes but we're a little worse for wear aren't we?" Haraki said while looking at her wet, dirt- stained dress.

"Hey…" Taji said. "Do think we can pick anything?"

"I think the leeks are ready" Haraki said.

'_Leeks? Ugh…'_ Taji thought as Haraki picked them.

"Oh." She said. "And Mr. Hadako…next time you play that game I'd like to play with you." "Okay," He said "I can introduce you to Hiroki and Ryou, then again I think Ryou's always looking for another victim to beat at rich man-poor man."

Haraki laughed. "Let's go," she said and they continued to the house.

-Seiya's House-

Haraki put a plate of steamed leeks on the table in front of Kari. "What are you trying to do kill me?!" she asked. "You know I hate leeks!"

"And onions, and miso, am I leaving anything out?" Seiya said.

"Hey! Miso's okay as long as it's soup!" Kari told her.

"Just shut up and eat them!" Haraki said, then she picked some of them up and shoved them into Kari's mouth.

"Uh Haraki…" Seiya said. "Kari's already passed out."

'_Huh,'_ Taji thought. _'They're still fighting now… but maybe… they'll learn to be friends.'_

-Taji's thought-

Haraki and Kari are standing on the beach at sunset, in their school uniforms, they face each other and join hands.

"All this time I've been fighting with you I simply mis-understood you, I'm sorry." Haraki said "No I'm sorry," Kari said. "From now on lets be the best of friends."

-Reality-

'_On second thought that might be scary!'_ he thought.


	5. Episode 4 Headstrong & Straight forward

Episode 4-Headtrong and straight forward

A couple days later everyone sat at the house relaxing. Seiya and Haraki reading, Kari was lying on the floor next to the table, and Taji was cleaning the table. After a minute or so there was something like… a shake? "What the…?" Taji asked out loud.

Seiya looked up. "He's here," she said.

"He?" Taji asked.

Kari quickly got up and tried to walk away but Seiya grabbed her shirt. "You're not going anywhere," she said.

"Come on!" Kari said. "Let me go!"

Taji left them and checked the door, which was somehow open. "Hello?" he said. _'Huh… there's no one here but I swore I closed the door.' _

He stood there for a second and a boy showed up, he had brown hair and eyes to match. He wore tan jeans and a red shirt with a black coat over them and a pair of sneakers.

"Hey," he said "I'm Yuta, Yuta Sohma, that's my name, Kari around?"

Taji looked him over. _'Huh another Sohma… he looks pretty cool.'_ After a minute or so, he spoke. "Yeah she's here."

Yuta then looked up and into the living room. "Kari," he said as he ran toward her.

Kari had given up and was sitting next to Seiya.

"Hey Kari, haven't seen you in a while, ran off huh? But why? Is the question" Yuta said.

"Yeah, Yeah… Hi Yuta," Kari said.

Yuta continued. "I've been waiting to see you," he said with a smirk.

"What's that look for?" Kari asked.

"Just a little reminder that we have to fight!"

"All right! You and me right now!" Kari told him.

"With pleasure," he said as he cracked his knuckles and jumped toward Kari, she did the same t but he grabbed her, and spun her around for a while, sending her through the door.

"Well," Haraki said. "It seems as if we'll be needing another door."

Seiya put her hand on her head and sighed. "Sometimes it's as if the whole world is conspiring to destroy my house."

Taji looked at her, then at Yuta. He had a shocked look on his face.

Seiya looked up at him. "Oh this is normal, Yuta and Kari fight, Kari looses and we have to hear about it."

"Why?" Taji asked.

"I'm not sure but I think it's because Kari gives Yuta a bit of competition in fighting."

"Uh huh…and what animal is Yuta?" Taji asked.

"I leave that to you to figure out, though it should be pretty obvious by now…" Seiya told him.

After a couple more minutes the fighting stopped and Yuta looked at Kari.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Sure," Kari said, giving him a look.

A couple minutes later they all sat at the table again, but this time the room was colder.

"Kind of cold isn't it?" Haraki asked, referring to the door.

"Yes it is kind of drafty…" Seiya said.

"Sorry," Yuta said. "I guess I got carried away…" He looked at Kari. "But it's your fault too if you hadn't left I wouldn't have missed you and wanted a competition so much."

'_Huh,'_ Taji thought. _'It's like he's a whole different person.'_

"Anyway," Yuta continued. "Why'd you go off? You forgot to call me or something."

"Who said I forgot?" Kari snapped.

"Of course you did," he said. "I mean, you like me don't ya?"

"Like you?" Taji said.

"Yeah," Seiya told him. "I think he likes Kari a little bit but doesn't want to admit it."

"Shut up!" Yuta said, he turned and gave Seiya a look.

"Anyway, didn't you say you were sort of a cat person too?" Seiya asked Taji.

"Yeah," Taji said.

"Huh," Yuta looked at him. "You know cats are okay and I've always liked the cat, even her other for..."

He didn't get to finish, Kari grabbed him and covered his moth "Not another word!" She hissed seriously and angrily.

Yuta nodded and fell back, landing on Kari.

"What the…?" Taji said. "She…she didn't transform."

"Oh yeah," Yuta said. "You see members of the zodiac can hug and run into each other and they won't transform see?" Then he hugged Seiya and Haraki.

"Why?" Taji asked.

"It's a mystery to us," Haraki said as Yuta let her go, then a beep was heard.

"Huh…" Taji said. "Must be the laundry, I'll get it," He ran off.

"Thanks!" Seiya called after him, as Yuta followed him.

-Laundry room-

Taji was starting to take the clothes out as Yuta showed up in the door way.

"Hey, you need some help?" he asked.

"Well I don't usually take care of this, and I was gonna do Kari's clothes for her."

"I'll do it", Yuta said.

"You don't have to…" Taji told him.

"But I want to. Just count it as an apology for the broken door," Yuta said.

"Okay," Taji said as he walked off.

"Now let's see… detergent…" Yuta said to himself. "One? two? Or maybe the whole thing?" Taji watched for a minute then left.

Meanwhile Kari sat in the living room and Yuta came back. "Hey," he said.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Go away."

"Come on," he said. "You don't want another fight?" Then he flipped her over and sat on her. "Get off!" Kari said.

She struggled until she was able to escape and went into a bush.

"Kari…?"Taji tried to call her.

"Leave her," Seiya said. "She'll come back when she's hungry."

"Uh… okay" Taji said, then he started to walk off.

Yuta got up too and went into the kitchen, where, he put a kettle on the stove. "When she gets back some tea should calm her down…" He said to himself.

"Well then… I'll just be heading out." Taji said.

"Going shopping?" Seiya asked him.

"Yeah, I figure I can get that done too."

Haraki came up a second later showed up "I'll go with you Mr. Hadako, I've got nothing to do..."

"Thanks" Taji said, and, they left.

-Walking-

As Taji and Haraki walked to the store, they started talking.

"What's the deal with Yuta?" Taji asked.

"Well, Yuta is sort of straight forward in what he does, and he fights Kari because he thinks she gives him competition, though I'm sure it's because he likes Kari a tiny bit but he doesn't want to admit it."

"Isn't that what Seiya said?" Taji asked.

"Probably. I know I'm not the only one who thinks so… " she said as they kept walking.

Meanwhile Kari sat on her knees in between some bushes.

"Stupid Yuta…" She muttered. "Why does he have to fight me?! He should fight Haraki, then she could get beat for once!" Then she stopped and looked up at the house. "I have to get back in the house but how?" she asked herself. "He's nowhere in sight…" She then got up and went inside.

While she did this Yuta was inside with some of the laundry he agreed to do. "Huh… Maybe if I wring it out it'll dry faster…" He said, then he squeezed the black shirt he was holding. "Dry damn you!" He wrung to hard though, it broke.

Kari had seen the whole thing and looked at him with a shocked expression. "Did you just do what I think you did?!" She asked, she held pieces of the shirt in her hands. "And I really liked this one too!"

"Sorry about that…" Yuta said. "You can have this one."

"It's soaking wet!" Kari said. "And it doesn't matter…" She trailed off as a bunch of bubbles covered them. "What the…?"

"Damn it!" Kari said. "This is all your fault! You know that right?"

After a minute Seiya came by. "Uh Yuta… how much detergent did you use?" she asked.

"All of it!" Yuta said as Seiya looked up, she smelled something. "

Is something burning?" She asked.

"Crap! The tea!" Yuta shouted as he went into the kitchen and grabbed the kettle's handle. He immediately let go. "Hot!" he said. It hit the ground and succeeded in causing a fire. Kari tried to blow it away with her shirt and when it didn't work Seiya came in with a fire extinguisher "I go it."She said as the kitchen became covered in foam.

"My aren't we lovely?" she said.

"Why are you laughing?!" Kari asked, she was obviously pissed.

"Right," Seiya said _(Puts angry mark on head) _"Now I'm mad."

"Guess I wasn't watching it…" Yuta said.

_(Removed Mark) _"It's okay," Seiya told him. "Though, we won't be able to use the kitchen for awhile, will we? I guess we'll just eat out."

-Evening-

When Taji came home, he immediately went in the kitchen out of habit. "Hey…" He said to Yuta. "You need some help?"

"No," Yuta said. "I did it and I'll fix it."

"Don't feel bad," Seiya said from behind. "He was reluctant to let me help too."

"Then what about dinner?" Taji asked.

"Oh we'll just order out," Seiya told him.

"And Kari?" Taji asked.

"The roof." Seiya said.

"You should probably leave her alone."

Later after they finished dinner, Taji looked around and found that Kari and Yuta had not eaten yet. "Hey what about Kari and Yuta?" he asked.

"Hmm…" Seiya said. "Am I ready to face Kari? No. But I think I can brave the kitchen."

She then got up and went into the kitchen.

"Hey Yuta? We ordered you some dinner and you should probably eat it while it's hot." "Thanks," he said. "But I have to finish."

"Very well then," she said. "But you should eat soon." Then, she left him to his work

-Nighttime-

That night Taji went downstairs to see how Yuta was doing, he didn't find him though. _'Where's Yuta?'_ he asked himself as he went into the kitchen. "It's clean…?" he muttered. He then looked at the still untouched dinner boxes. _'They still haven't eaten?'_ He took one last glance before he wandered into the main room and found Yuta working on the door.

"This is gonna take all night…" he muttered to himself. Taji looked at him and heard his stomach growl.

"Huh…." he said and went back into the kitchen, when he came out he held some rice balls. "Hey…" he said to Yuta. "I made these, since you didn't eat. I'm sorry they're cold."

"It's okay," Yuta said. "I like them this way." He then took and ate one.

"Hey, why don't we work on this together? It'll get done faster that way." Taji suggested. "Okay," Yuta said. "But first can I have another one?"

"Sure" Taji said, as Yuta ate another rice ball.

They then worked for awhile, as Yuta started cutting things. "Check it out, it's a cat," he said. "Cool," Taji said, then, he held up a shape. "Look it's a rat."

They put the shapes on the door.

"Hey Taji, I hope we can be good friends," Yuta said.

"Right" Taji nodded.

Later, when they were done, Taji went to the roof, and found Kari lying there.

"Hey…" he told her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"You're not staying up here all night are you?" He asked.

"As long as Yuta's here I'm not leaving."

Taji left for a moment, and when he came back he presented some rice balls to Kari.

"Here," he said.

"Thanks," Kari said as she took the tray.

"Hey Kari? Did you sit outside alone like this when you where in the mountains?"

"Huh?" Kari looked at him. "Oh, no, I wasn't alone I was with my master."

"Master?" Taji gave her a questioning look.

"Yeah she's the best! While we were in the mountains she stayed with me and helped me, it was like every day was an adventure! I would wake up thinking 'what's she gonna teach me next? How much stronger will I get today?'"

Taji smiled at her. "Well that sounds great, and I can show you a couple things I know, let's see…" He pondered before it came to him. "Right straight!" he punched her and Kari looked at him.

"You suck," she laughed and started showing him how to do it hard and right.

-Morning-

The next morning Yuta sat next to Kari at breakfast before she went off to school. "Well I guess I'll be seeing you," he said.

"Good, go away," she said.

"Fine, be that way…" He took off, but he didn't watch where he was going and crashed into the mail lady.

Haraki ran toward her and threw her away while covering her eyes.

"Thanks for your service…" she said. After the woman went off Haraki began adjusting her tie. Taji looked at Yuta, who was now transformed.

"Hey Yuta's a boar!" He said.

"Okay…" Seiya said. "But I think that's cheating."

"You know Yuta, one day I kind of hope I can act like you, your always head strong and wanting to help that's pretty cool." Taji told him.

"Me?" He said. "You would like to act like me?" At that moment he changed back. "Cool!"

"Put some clothes on!" Kari yelled.

Later, as they walked to school, Yuta said goodbye…again. "See ya..." He said. "Oh and Kari I'll bring you a new shirt next time."

"Yeah, Yeah let's go…" She said, as Yuta took off.

"Well I'm glad that's over…and it is nice out I'll be able to work on the base today." Haraki stated as she peered up at the sky.

"Planting something new?" Taji asked her.

"Oh yeah, strawberries," Haraki said.

"Cool I love strawberries, they are my favorite."

Haraki laughed. "I thought you'd like them, that's why I planted them."

"Are you commin' or what?!" Kari snapped.

They followed her and Taji looked back. _'Well I guess that's it, I really hope we get to see Yuta again he really is a good guy…' _he then left with Haraki and Kari.


	6. Episode 5 Where Home Is

Episode 5-Where home is

Taji was walking through the library at school a couple afternoons later; he was looking up martial arts books. "Okay let's see…" He muttered as he read each title and picked up a book. "This should be good, _Tiger's eye, the Inner Life of the Martial Artist." _While he looked at it he remembered Kari's words _"Yeah she's the best! every day was an adventure! I would wake up thinking 'what's she gonna teach me next? How much stronger will I get today?" _He smiled and went to another section.

"Let's see…" he pondered, after a minute or so and picked up a book "_A Gardener's Guide to a Happy Environment _Haraki will like this." After that he picked up another book on the way to the check-out desk. "_101 Family Recipes, _there's got to be some great dinner ideas in here." He walked up to the desk and handed the books to the teacher running it. "I'd like to check these out." he stood and waited as another teacher came in.

"Taji Hadako?" She said.

"Yes?" Taji replied.

"Call for you in the main office," She left and he followed her.

-Main Office-

Taji picked up the phone and listened. "This is Taji," he said.

He waited while the other person talked, and then paused, a bit surprised.

Later when he came home he sat with Seiya, who was reading a newspaper, at the table in the living room, and Kari stood outside practicing.

"The renovations on my grandfather's house have been finished." He told her.

Seiya looked at him with a surprised expression. "I see, and I know you were planning to move in once they were done."

Kari looked at Seiya and Taji. "What renovations?" she asked.

"Oh guess we never told you, Taji was only living here until his Grandfather's house was renovated, he'll be leaving tonight."

"What the?" Kari asked. "Leaving?" She snapped.

"Yeah, sorry we never told you." Taji said.

"Don't be sorry," Seiya said. "We just caught her off guard with the news what we've experienced here is minor rage I believe the technical term is being an ass."

Kari glared at her. "You are so full of it!"

"Well I should probably get my stuff," Taji told them as he left.

When he got up to his room he sat on the floor and started putting his things in a bag while thinking. _'I knew I wasn't going to be staying here long, but It sure feels weird to be leaving. And this also reminds me of a game the children played when I was younger, it was called __**'Fruits Basket'**__'_

Flashback

A bunch of children are sitting in a circle of chair and one stands in the middle giving them names. "Okay you're an apple." He pointed to each children as he gave out the names. "A pear, peach, strawberry, and Taji you can be the rice ball."

Taji looked at him. _'Rice ball…? That sounds okay,' _he thought.

"_All of the other children played and I sat waiting for someone to call "Rice ball" so that I could play too."_

End Flashback

'_Yeah,'_ Taji thought as he slipped another book in his bag. _'I guess…Since then I've never been too good at thinking some things through._'

Meanwhile Haraki and Seiya sat at the table downstairs while Kari lay off to the side. "Aren't you going to try and stop him?" Seiya asked.

"Why bother you know he was only here until the renovations were finished." Haraki replied. Seiya looked at her.

"Let him go," Kari said. They both looked at her, and then at each other.

Later Taji stood in front of the door with Seiya and Haraki standing across from him. "Well I have everything, and before I forget- you need to buy soy sauce and milk, and this is my grandfathers address so you know where I'm at if you need something."

"Thank you Taji," Seiya said taking the paper.

"Where's that stupid cat?" Haraki asked. "Isn't she going to at least see him off?"

Seiya glanced at her from the side. "You should know by now that sulking on the roof is one way Kari shows she cares." she said.

"Okay, I'm off," he said as he walked out the door.

"See ya…" Seiya said.

The door closed and Taji peered at the sunset lit sky.

'_Well that's it. It feels weird but It's what I have to do…'_ he glanced at the roof and left.

-The Hadako house-

"Hey I'm here," Taji said when he entered, the new house.

"Oh didn't expect to see you so soon…" his aunt, Mariko, told him.

"Well I thought I'd come early in case you needed help or something."

"It's okay," Mariko told him. "You can just put your things in your room and meet us down here."

"Right," Taji nodded and went upstairs, where, he started to unpack his stuff, but halfway through he paused for a minute. _'I wonder how the others are doing, I could of stayed to make sure they found everything but...'_

His thoughts were interrupted by his cousin-Kodai. "Hey you done? I swear… If we're going to move into a larger house why share a room? Just hurry up." he closed the door and left Taji alone for a few minutes.

Later that night when Taji came back in he looked out the window. _'Wow… a full moon, I wonder if Haraki and Kari can see it too, it's so nice,' _he stood for a couple minutes before crawling into bed.

-Next day, Sohma house-

The next morning, after getting up Seiya immediately went for the kitchen, out of habit.

"Taji I'm hungry! Where's breakfast?" she asked.

Haraki and Kari glared at her.

"Right, Taji's gone…" Seiya said.

"That sounds like you forgot on purpose!" Kari snapped.

"Why would I do that?" Seiya said. "I'm not that bad."

"You can be," Haraki told her.

Seiya ignored her and looked at the both of them. "Anyway Taji left some of the beef stew for us, it should be in the fridge."

Haraki looked in the fridge and took out a big pot. "This?" she said.

"Good so Haraki why don't you heat it up for us," Seiya said.

"You have to be kidding me," Haraki gave her a funny look.

"Right, so Kari I guess you're in charge of it."

"Why do I gotta do it?!" Kari asked.

"Fine you don't have to, I mean if you don't mind letting it get burnt, just like burnt rice, or burnt miso soup or any of the fine burnt dishes Haraki used to make before Taji lived here." She turned around and smiled when she saw Kari at the stove. _'It worked…' _

A couple minutes later they all sat around the table with bowls in front of them. "I'd have to rate your performance a zero," Haraki told Kari.

"So you do it next time!" Kari snapped.

Seiya interrupted them, "We thank for this stew Taji, where ever you are."

They all held their together and then ate.

"It's delicious… too bad Taji won't be around to make it anymore." Seiya said.

"I know, and it's kind of quiet without him around…" Haraki said.

Then they all looked down for a second.

-School-

Later that morning, at school Taji ran into Haraki as she was putting her shoes away.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey yourself," she told him. "How's grandfathers?"

"Pretty good," he replied.

"Oh, well… see you" Haraki said, then she just walked off, she didn't know what to say anymore.

"Bye…" Taji said as he walked into the hall, there, he ran into Kari. "Kari," he told her.

"Uh hi…" she said and walked into the classroom.

A couple minutes later Taji sat in class taking notes.

'_So I guess that's it…'_ he thought as he looked at the board.

-After School, Grandfather's-

Taji sat in his room surrounded by books. He was looking at the floor when his uncle, Rihito, came in. "Hey," he said. "You put these in my drawer?" he held up a pair of socks.

"Sorry I was only trying to help, is it not right?"

"Do these really look like something I'd wear?" he asked, Taji looked at him. "Make a note for next time, these are Grandpa's socks." He left and Mariko called.

"Hey Taji can you come here?"

"Okay," he said, then he went downstairs, where, he found her in the kitchen.

"Can you hand me one of the big serving plates please?" Taji nodded and looked in the big China cabinet, where it used to be and where it was at the Sohma house, but, he couldn't find one.

Mariko sighed and opened another cabinet. "For future reference we keep the plates in here." "Right, " he nodded again, and sighed.

Meanwhile at the Sohma's house Kari was on the roof, but this time she just looked at the sky and sighed.

Later, Taji was called down again and found Mariko at the counter and Rihito at the table. "What's up?" Taji asked when he came in.

"Well I understand you've been living in a house with three women," Mariko said.

Right after she said it Kodai came in. "No way! You were shacked up?"

"Anyway," Mariko continued. "I decided to hire an agency to look in on this, since my oldest son is a cop and it would give him some practice."

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Taji asked.

"At first I thought it was then I remembered how wild boys can be so I had to."

"Tell me Taji," Rihito said pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Living in a house with three girls, I bet you had lots of fun didn't you?"

As soon as he said it he was immediately slapped.

"Grandpa?" Mariko said.

"How dare you say such things about my grandson? Taji come with me." He said as he walked off, Taji followed him into the hall. "Listen Taji, this is my home and my family, and I know they can say things that are a bit cruel and I can put up with it, but you don't have to, and if there's somewhere else you'd like to be then go. You know even your father would say your mother was happier where she could be herself and spread her arms wide, just like you."

Taji looked at him then the ground. "I just couldn't," he replied in a serious but gentle tone. "You see I have a lot already, a roof over my head, food, great friends and family I couldn't ask for more. Then again I did want to go on living in that house with Haraki, Kari, and Seiya. I mean I didn't think leaving them would be so sad."

"Then why not come home?" a voice interrupted.

"Haraki?" Taji said as a hand went to his head.

"Come on, we're going home." Kari said.

"Kari? You're here too?" he asked, a second later Rihito, Mariko, and Kodai showed up.

"Who are you?" Mariko asked.

Haraki ignored her. "Don't worry we'll be out of your way soon, can I find Mr. Hadako's things upstairs?"

Rihito looked at her. "Oh I get it these are the girls the little perv was shacking up with."

Haraki approached him and looked him straight in the face. "Don't you ever talk about Mr. Hadako like that again…you lowlife" she said very seriously as Kari took Taji out of the house.

Outside

On the street Taji was being drug out by Kari.

"Kari stop, what are you doing?" he asked.

Kari let him go then looked at him. "What's it look like? We're bringing you home!"

"But…How'd you find me?" Taji asked.

"You're the one who left the address! But you could've made it easier to follow! I got stuck walking around half the city with that damn Haraki!"

-Quick Flashback-

Haraki and Kari are standing on an unknown street, and Kari seems frustrated.

"Let me see that map!" Kari snapped.

"Nuh, uh…" Haraki said.

"But why did you come?" Taji asked.

Kari stopped in her tracks. "Listen after you left I started getting pissed off about everything, and I couldn't figure out what it was so it just pissed me off even more and I just didn't get it…so…uh, I don't know!"

Taji looked at her, and smiled. _'She…Did she miss me?'_

"What are you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing." Taji said quickly.

"Anyway, if you didn't want to leave you could have just said something!" She told him.

"But how …?" Taji looked at her.

"We heard you," Kari said. "Every word. Look, you can tell people what you think, it's annoying if you do it all the time but still, complain a little; let people know what's on your mind."

Taji looked at her and smiled gently. "Let's go home" he said.

Kari looked at him and smiled as Haraki showed up and they walked together.

When they got to the house Seiya was waiting for them on the porch, she was sort of leaned over on the door post with her right hand on her left arm. Taji looked at all of them.

_Well Mom, I guess I'm home. _


	7. Episode 6 An Unbreakable Bond

Episode 6-An unbreakable Bond

A couple days later Taji approached Seiya in her office, where, she was drawing again.

"Hey Seiya?" he started.

Seiya looked up at him. "Huh?" she said.

"Well since I'm going to be staying I was wondering if I told two of my friends where I was, I think they should know."

"Yes, and I'm pretty sure we'd like to get to know them."

"Thanks," Taji told her, then he got up and left.

The next day at lunch he told Ryou and Hiroki about the house. "What the hell?! Not only were you living in a tent but now your living in Princess Haraki's house?!" Ryou said.

"Huh… I wonder…How will Haraki's fan club react when they hear the news?" Hiroki said.

"Yeah," Ryou started. "But, I guess it explains why you've been spending so much time with Haraki and orange top lately," he ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Taji.

"I think we should pay them a visit and see if this a good place for Taji to be living." Hiroki suggested.

"Yeah we could check it out after school," Ryou said.

"But if we show up unexpectedly they may not have snacks," Hiroki told him.

"Another good point, then we'll come over tomorrow night."

"Okay," Taji said.

-Sohma house, next day-

Seiya, Haraki, Kari and Taji sat in the living room, while Seiya wiped the table.

"I'm sorry I'm not honest, I can say that in my dreams," she sang, they didn't mind though, Seiya was actually a pretty good singer. After that, she stopped though, "Who are these friends of Taji's anyway?" she asked.

"A thought talker and a curser." Kari said.

Seiya looked at her, as the bell rang.

"They're here," Taji said as he got up went to the door.

"Hey," Seiya said, she looked at Haraki and Kari. "What do you think would happen if either of these boys found out our secret? At the very least I'd say Taji wouldn't be able to live here anymore so try and be careful."

"Right," Haraki and Kari nodded.

Then, Taji came in with Ryou and Hiroki, who looked around.

"A dog" Hiroki said.

Seiya looked at him, with a shocked expression, did he know?

"A dog… over there" he pointed to a dog outside.

Seiya turned around. "Oh, yes that's a dog, no you can't come in here." she said to the dog. Haraki and Kari gave her weird looks.

A couple minutes later everyone sat around the table.

"These are my friends, Ryou Tsukio and Hiroki Reatsu." Taji said.

"Hey," Ryou told them.

"Hello," Hiroki said.

Ryou looked around. "Hey, it's Seiya right?"

'_Isn't that a boy's name?'_ Hiroki thought.

Seiya nodded to Ryou.

"This is a nice place, what do you do to pay the rent around here?"

"Well I'm a manga artist," Seiya told him.

"A manga artist?" Taji dropped the pitcher he was holding. "That's cool!"

"Why do you look so surprised?" Ryou asked him.

"This is the first he's heard of it," Hiroki told him.

"Yeah… what was it Shojo literature or something?" Haraki asked.

"Yeah," Seiya told her. "This sort of story." She held up a small book titled _Pretty Sugar Love Love._ "It even got turned into an anime," she said. Everyone gave her weird looks, mostly because of what was written on the book.

"Oh wait…" she said, then she brought out another book, this one titled _Moonlight Shine._ "This is my real work, this one was something I drew for fun…"

"So that makes it okay to write that stuff?" Ryou asked.

"You can be really weird when you wanna be!" Kari told her.

Seiya looked at her and turned to Hiroki who had picked up Seiya's book.

"Hmm…love doomed from the start," he said.

"Huh?" Seiya went over to him. "Oh, well, what do you think?"

"You don't want to know what I think…" Hiroki told her. "But, is there a second volume?" Seiya nodded and then, she faced Ryou.

"So Ryou, why don't you tell us how you met Taji." She said, trying to change the subject. "Seriously?" He said.

"Oh Ryou helped me," Taji said. "You see, one time in middle school I dropped some of my books in the hall, and he helped me pick them up."

"Yeah," Ryou said. "I remember that, I guess I could get a little rough back then."

'_Back then?'_ Haraki and Kari thought.

"Yeah, but you were still a bit of a delinquent back then."

"Yeah, I had my eyebrows thinned out and I wore those necklaces and wristbands."

"You still do those things Ryou," Hiroki said.

Seiya looked at him. "Well then, what about you Hiroki?"

"Are you sure you want to hear?" Hiroki asked.

"No it's fine…" Seiya said, but he continued on.

"I was transferred into Taji's class during middle school, because, where we used to live…my sister and I cause sort of a disturbance."

Seiya looked at him them and started to walk off.

"Well I have some work to do so you guys have fun."

'_She escaped,'_ Haraki thought.

'_Ran the hell away,'_ Kari thought.

Taji looked at them. _'Everyone's getting along well'_ he thought.

"I know!" He got up and they all sat there for a minute. Taji soon came back with some cards. "We can play rich man-poor man." he suggested.

"Cool let's start where we were last time, I don't think I got to finish making a fool out of Orange top here!" Ryou said.

"Well then, let's make it interesting…" Kari said. "If I win you have to dye your hair black!" she said.

"Fine," Ryou told her. "But if I win you have to bleach all of the dye out of your hair and leave it white!"

"It's naturally this color!" Kari told him.

"Is that so?" Ryou asked.

"Yeah it is!" Kari snapped at him.

Taji ignored them and went to Haraki. "Haraki? Do you want to shuffle the cards?" he asked. Haraki smiled at him. "Sure" she said as she took them from his hands.

A little while later Ryou held some of his cards up.

"Revolution," he said.

"What the…?" Kari said. "What cheap ass tricks are you pulling?" she glared at him.

"None. You just suck," he said.

"You know what? If you want a fight you got it!" Kari told him.

"Fine! We'll go at it! Right here, right now!"

Kari got up, but Ryou stood in front of her. "Running away huh?" he asked.

"Who's running? I'm going to the bathroom." She said.

Ryou blocked her again. "Gotta take a leek? Hurry we don't want you to piss you self…" he said.

"Dammit you got a big mouth, now move!" Kari snapped.

She tried to walk past him but they crashed into each other and Kari transformed, she ran way immediately.

Ryou stumbled for a second then looked around. "Hey where'd…?"

"Something wrong Mr. Tsukio?" Haraki asked.

"No let's play," Ryou sat down again while Kari sat outside panting.

Ryou started to walk back to the table but tripped on what was Kari's black skirt. "Ryou!" Taji got up and tried to catch him.

"Mr. Hadako!" Haraki said while trying to get _him_ but she ended up underneath him and transformed too. She ran while Ryou and Hiroki made sure Taji was okay.

"I'm fine" he said… They were looking at him; he looked down and realized his hand was on Haraki's shirt. "I'm just… just cleaning!" he wrapped the shirt around his wrist and pretended to wipe the table.

Meanwhile Haraki and Kari sat under the porch glaring at each other .

"Stupid cat!"

"Damn Rat!"

"Okay enough of that," Taji said as he put Haraki's shirt down. "Why don't we play a game of sevens until Haraki and Kari get back?"

"Sure" Ryou and Hiroko said, then, they started playing.

A couple minutes later Kari's paw tried to each for her clothes and Seiya came by, she blocked Kari's paw when she saw it. "So how's it going?" She asked.

"Fine, do you want to play with us?" Taji asked, he motioned toward the cards.

"Well I guess… but you should watch out in High school they called me the 'Sevens Bandit'" Seiya lied.

"Really?" Taji replied in a sarcastic tone.

"No." Seiya told him as she sat down "So what are the rules again?"

They played for a while, until they heard a weird noise.

"Huh?" Ryou said. "Did you hear something like a boom?"

"Yes, it was a definite 'Boom'" Hiroki said.

'_Oh no!'_ Taji thought, he knew exactly what it was. _'Kari just changed back!' _

'_Kari transformed back, they can't see her! What's worse she'll be naked!'_ Seiya thought.

'_I know! I can give her Haraki's clothes'_ Taji thought as he reached for them.

'_Anything to cover her up!'_ Seiya thought. She did the same thing Taji did and she grabbed them first, flinging Taji toward her. _'Why is this so heavy?'_ she looked back. _'Oh no.'_

Taji crashed into her, and when he got up he discovered his arms around a transformed Seiya and Ryou and Hiroki giving him weird looks.

"Oh ,I thought you weren't coming home, but I'm glad your back…uh…Blackie!" he said, he was trying to think quickly and elude them.

'_Blackie?'_ Seiya thought.

"Huh…" Hiroki ignored them for a second and looked at the plate on the table. "We need more snacks."

"Okay I'll find the kitchen…" Ryou said as he got up. He started to walk but he ran into Kari, who had apparently come back.

'_Oh no she just changed back and the idiot's already transformed again!'_ Seiya thought. _'I have to create a diversion!' _She ran around barking, and then there was another "boom." _'Oh no not Haraki too!'_ She moved around frantically and grabbed Haraki's clothes in her mouth. She then threw them off the porch.

A minute or so later Haraki came back in.

"Taji," she said, calling him by name for the first time. "I think Blackie is trying to tell us she's hungry."

"Right," Taji said. "Come on girl let's go into the kitchen."

"Taji wait!" Hiroki called.

"Huh?"

"More snacks."

Taji nodded then went in the kitchen with Seiya. "Sorry about all of this," Taji told her.

Seiya was eating out of a bowl on the floor. "Don't worry about," she said. "Listen, if these people are important to you then they're important to us too, do you understand?"

"Yes," Taji said, and then he got up. "Well, I'm gonna go keep them busy…"

Meanwhile Ryou, Hiroki and Haraki sat playing cards.

"This game is going nowhere," Ryou said.

"I'm gonna check on the snacks," Haraki said, she went towards the kitchen and bumped into Taji he fell backwards and the plate of jelly buns he had was sent flying.

'_Oh no! Haraki!'_ Taji thought. _'Where are you?'_

"Here!" Haraki told him softly.

"Where?" he whispered, her silver-ish fur made her blend in with all the jelly buns.

"Here!" she said again.

'_Let's see… jelly bun, jelly bun, jelly bun… Haraki!'_ he reached out but…

'_Mr. Hadako wait that's a jelly bun,'_ Haraki then fell to the ground.

"Hey good catch," Ryou said.

"Though most of them still fell…" Hiroki said.

'_Maybe I'm lucky he didn't catch me he squeezed that thing so hard all the filling came out.'_ Haraki thought, still a little dizzy from the fall.

A couple minutes later Haraki escaped and went into the laundry room with Seiya and Kari. Kari was sitting in a basket and Haraki stood on Seiya's head as she looked in the washing machine. "Hmm nothing…" Seiya started. "I was hoping we'd find something to wear in here."

"Well we are pretty through with the laundry." Haraki said.

"Aw hell with it!" Kari said, she then stood up in the basket. "Let them see us! All we have to do is erase their memories."

"Yes," Seiya started with a serious tone. "But that also means we would have to erase Taji's memory too."

Kari looked at her for a minute and hopped out. "Stay here! I'm going to find us some clothes." She ran upstairs then went into the rooms, where, she rummaged through the drawers a bit. Then she ran downstairs with the clothes, there, she ran past the laundry room, but that was the trouble. All she saw was Ryou's foot coming toward her she stood there for a second and Seiya grabbed her in her mouth and carried her into the bushes before anyone noticed and they transformed back.

Taji, Hiroki and Ryou just looked around, but they saw nothing.

Meanwhile, behind the bush, the girls were in hiding.

"That was close," Haraki said.

"I don't care! Just put some clothes on!" Kari snapped.

"Speak for yourself." Seiya told her.

Later that night, the boys sat on Taji's bed with him, Ryou looked it over.

"This bed is pretty cool…" Ryou said, as he rubbed his hand over the Navy blue cover.

"Oh Seiya bought it for me," Taji told him.

"She must think big of you, but you need more like a lamp, or maybe a night stand."

"Nah," Taji told him. "I've already got enough, I mean, I have a good family, friends and plenty more, if I had more I'd just be asking for it, and I prefer to think about what I have, not what I don't…"

"Interesting thought…" Ryou told him.

"It's kind of like… a philosophy" Hiroki said.

"Huh?" Taji said as his friends placed one hand each on his shoulders.

"A great philosophy…" Hiroki said.

"Yeah," Taji muttered, as they slept later on.

The next morning Taji found Kari in the kitchen before him, she was drinking out of the milk carton.

"Hey," He greeted her.

"Hey," Kari said, then she looked toward the door, where, Haraki stood in her pink dress. She looked dazed and tired.

"Haraki are you…?" Kari asked as Haraki laid her head on Kari's shoulder. "Oh…" Kari said in a voice of disgust.

"Hey Haraki, I see your having a hard time waking up as usual," Taji said.

"Yeah, yeah just move on" Kari said, she was freaked out and she hated having Haraki on her. Haraki stayed for a second before walking.

"Hey Kari, as much as you want to beat Haraki you don't fight her when she's like this… that's pretty noble," Taji said.

"It's not that," Kari said. "She's stronger when she's half asleep. You know what that means? It means that damn sissy rat girl is holding out on me!"

Haraki the came over and punched her.

"What the hell?! I thought you were still asleep!" Kari told her.

"You're stupid voice woke me up," Haraki said.

"Alright then! You and me right here, right now!" Kari yelled.

"How can you even talk about this so early in the morning?"

As soon as she said it, Hiroki and Ryou showed up at the door.

"A cat and a rat…" Hiroki said.

Haraki and Kari stood frozen.

"That's what they fight like, a cat and a rat…"

"Yeah, like in those old cartoons, something or other and Jerry."

"Huh," Taji laughed.

"Anyway I think this is a fine environment for Taji, and if it wasn't I would have had to do many things to correct it."

"Things?" Kari asked.

"Yes, many."

Haraki and Kari gave him a look.

Later, Taji stood at the door as Hiroki and Ryou left. "Bye! See you tomorrow!" he called as Ryou and Hiroki walked off. Off to the side Seiya watched them and smiled to herself.


	8. Episode 7 A Cultural Plum

Episode 7-A cultural Plum

_Taji: "Well the school is buzzing with excitement, the cultural festival's coming and my class is in charge of refreshments First Year "D" Block" _

Haraki stood in front of all the students in the class room and smiled. "I am proud to announce that everything's been cleared and we'll be allowed to open up our rice ball stand. Any suggestions you have on the matter are more than welcome."

"I have an idea," Taji said as he stood up. "We could try three flavor rice balls, we put in three different ingredients so it's like you're getting three rice balls at once."

Haraki paused. "Maybe."

"No way," Kakeru said. "That would be the sickest thing in the world."

"Like if you put miso, leeks and salmon all in the same one?" Keiichiro said.

"Ugh…"

It was then that Ryou stood up and put a lead pipe in his desk. "It can't be anymore sickening then you're crappy attitudes can it?" he asked fiercely.

"Isn't there a rule about bringing lead pipes to school?" Kakeru said nervously.

"I say we make it a battle" Kari said.

"A Battle?" One of the boys asked.

"Yeah, a battle! One on one! No holding back and even if they get bloody noses or rip each other's arms off they have to fight for the prize, rice balls!"

"No way," the students said.

Haraki pondered. "How about a hit-or-miss?"

"Huh?" Said the girl standing next to her, she was a representative, Azami.

"We can set up a stand with some good rice balls and then some misses mixed in that we can make with some strange ingredient or something."

"A great idea!" Azami exclaimed.

"And," Haraki continued ."We can have a deal, whoever buys three rice balls can choose a fourth for free."

The students responded with shouts of "Great!" and "Awesome idea!"

"Oh so you just go with whatever dumb idea she says!" Kari snapped.

"Hey, you can't blame us for knowing a good idea when we hear it." One of the boys said. "Yeah you're idea was way too weird," another one said.

Kari glared at them.

"Oh come on don't be mad…" they teased.

Kari continued to sit and glare as Haraki looked at her then her watch. "Well I've got a student council meeting, can you take over from here?" she asked Azami.

Azami nodded as hands shot up.

"Wait! Haraki I have a question!"

"Me too!"

Kari continued to glare at them, until… all of a sudden there were cats on her, they appeared out of nowhere!

"What the…?" The students said.

"Damn it all!" Kari said as she got up and ran out of the room.

Taji watched and followed her, only to find her on the roof. "There you are," he said to Kari.

She looked at him and he picked up a cat. "Hey kitty."

"Knock it off!" Kari told him.

"Why? These cats seem to like you."

"No, they just show up, same with dogs for Seiya and rats for Haraki."

Taji laughed.

"Hey it's not funny! One time I was in the woods with Yuta and we surrounded by a whole pack of boars! I thought they were going to eat us! Why are you here anyway?"

"Just worried." Taji told her. "Don't you want to help with the festival preparations?"

"What do they need me for? They've got Haraki don't they? I doubt anyone's gonna miss me; they're all too busy looking up to her. That's the way it's always been, ever since we were kids. She's always been the smart one, and she knows how to get stuff done, and she's good with people, all that, and everyone around her is always telling her how talented she is and stuff. She doesn't even have to try and they all look up to her. Anyway it's just like Martial arts I've been training way longer than she has and she's still better than me"

-Kari's thoughts-

A young Haraki is shown in a blue dress, smiling. A woman's voice is heard "It's true huh? The children of the rat really are special aren't they?"

Another voice says. "They sure are."

Next, a young Kari is shown with her knees curled up and a dragon fly on her foot.

"And compared to that the children of the cat are…" the first one said as Kari reached for the dragon fly, it flew off.

-End thoughts-

"It makes me sick! What do I gotta do to be someone like that? You know someone like her!" Kari finished. Taji looked at her and remembered Haraki's words _"Kari, she's shy when she first meets people but once she gets to know them a little she can open up to them be herself. You see, because of what Kari is she can never be accepted into the zodiac but isn't it better that she can be accepted for normal people for who she is? That is exactly what I've always wanted." _

'_So Haraki wants to be like Kari and Kari wishes she could be more like Haraki…'_ Taji thought _'I wonder, if they both secretly admire each other, then why does it just push them farther apart?' _

-Next morning, Sohma house-

"What the hell?! Are you trying to do turn this place into a rice ball shop?" Kari asked when she got up the next morning. She was looking at all the rice balls in the kitchen, they covered every single counter top.

"Hey you're up early," Taji said.

"This is when I always get up," Kari picked up a rice ball.

"Uh Kari…" Taji said as she ate part of it. "That's… a leek rice ball."

"Ugh…" She spit it out in the sink. "Why would you even make something so disgusting?!" she snapped.

"Oh, we're going to try a hit or miss, remember? So that's a miss, but I can make something else for you if you want."

"No I can do it myself…" Kari said as she walked over to the rice cooker.

Taji watched her make a rice ball, she did it so easily. "Hey, it's kind of cool the way you do it." Kari looked at him. "Huh?"

"I mean the way you make them, you do it so easily and I'm sure if we found a professional rice ball maker they'd still like the way you do it," Taji said.

"What the? Where did that come from? Professional rice ball maker? Ridiculous."

"Sorry," Taji said. _'But it doesn't change the fact that it's admirable…' _He thought, then he looked at Kari, who was sitting at the table. "Maybe you don't see it because you've got a plum on your back."

Kari glanced at him.

"I mean a person's admirable qualities, they're like a pickled plum on a rice ball, in other words the person's the rice ball and the plum is on their back. You see, all over the world you have many people, like how you have so many rice balls. I mean, everyone has different qualities that they want and don't have, because it's easier to see the plum on someone else's back than it is on your own. So someone could think of themselves as just plain rice but when you turn them around there's the plum. And I can see, you have a big plum on your back."

Kari looked at him again. "What the hell? What's the deal with plums?"

"Sorry, I was just trying to help," Taji shrugged and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey," Kari said.

Taji turned around.

"I can see it on you too… you have a plum on your back…"

Taji smiled at her.

"But it's small like a baby plum," she told him.

"Fine," he said as he walked off.

-Later, school-

Kari sat in front of a couple other girls who were setting up the rice ball stand, she held a hammer in her hand. "It's crooked," she told them.

They moved it.

"It's still crooked," she said.

"Oh come on! No one's gonna notice anything so small anyway cat lover," one said.

"Yeah you're just being finicky cat lover."

Kari stood up. "Hey what's with all this cat lover crap?!"

"Oh we got you figured out," another girl said. "You talk tough but you're just a gentle girl who loves animals."

"Aww!" All the girls said in unison.

"Hey! Shut up! Those weren't even my cats!"

Meanwhile, Taji sat with Hiroki and Ryou in the corner. "Why is it every time orange top's around I get a headache?" Ryou said.

'_Well,'_ Taji thought. _'I'm glad that they really don't have her figured out.' _

At that moment, some boys and two girls came in the class room.

"Hey Haraki!" They said.

Haraki turned around from where she was. "Yes?" she asked.

"We for something for you," one of the boys said. "The senior class helped buy it."

Then another girl came in holding a frilly, long, pink dress with a white coat. "See? A one-of-a-kind festival day outfit for you!" she said. "We thought it'd be great if you could wear it today!" Words cannot describe the look on Haraki's face.

Later, the festival and the rice ball stand were in full swing. "Rice balls! Buy 3 get one free!" was said numerous times as the students worked.

"This is great," one of the girls said. "We're going for first in the booth category!"

"Well I think we have all the stuff Taji made to thank for that," one of the boys said.

"Yeah, these cat ones are cool!" another girl said.

"Thanks," Taji said. "But I don't think that's what's attracting people to our booth…" He glanced at Haraki, she was surrounded by a bunch of kids and camera flashes.

"Yeah… I guess we couldn't ask for better advertising," another boy said.

Then…

"Haraki!" A young girl's voice called out, then little girl with long blonde hair almost down to her wrist and big brown eyes put her arms around Haraki's neck.

"Haraki you look ridiculous," she said.

"Oh no," Kari said. "What's she doing here?"

"Someone you know?" Taji said, he then looked at the girl again. She wore a short sleeve white shirt with a light pink kerchief and a matching light pink skirt with black shoes.

"Michiru," said another voice, and in walked another woman. This woman was older, about Seiya's age, and she had black hair a little past her shoulders with part of it totally covering her left eye, that part ran to the top of her neck. She wore what one would perceive as business attire, a navy blue skirt and a white shirt with a small red tie, she carried a coat the same color as her skirt.

Haraki turned and looked at her. "Himeko?" She said.

"Michiru you shouldn't run off like that, Haraki, Kari you're looking well." Himeko told them. A bunch of people surrounded them and asked questions.

"Hey how do you know Haraki?"

"Yeah, are you related?"

Michiru looked at them. "Yes," she said. "I'm Michiru Sohma, and this lady with me is Himeko Sohma, we're two of Haraki and Kari's relatives."

"Never mind that Michiru." Kari said. "What is that bitch Himeko doing here?"

Himeko apparently didn't hear her, she went over to Haraki and placed a stethoscope on her chest.

"Himeko's a doctor." Kari told Taji.

"Breath in, and out." Himeko told Haraki.

"Couldn't we have found a better time for this?" Haraki asked her.

"We did," Himeko told her. "We had an appointment."

Taji came over. "Haraki is something wrong?"

"Uh… sort of," Haraki said.

"It's Haraki's bronchial tubes." Himeko said as she stood up and took the stethoscope off of herself. "They're fairly sensitive and she used to suffer from frequent asthma attacks, it's a condition she's gradually growing out of." She looked at Taji. "Are you Taji Hadako?"

Taji nodded.

"Huh, I never expected you'd be so ordinary."

"Huh?" Taji looked at her.

"Himeko!" Haraki glared at her as a noise was heard.

"Put the rice ball down!" Kari snapped.

"Huh?" Taji looked and saw Michiru with a rice ball and Kari dragging her.

"Let go!" Michiru told her sternly.

"Sorry, I think they need my help" Taji said as he walked off, leaving Haraki and Himeko. Haraki glared at Himeko.

"Hey." Himeko said. "Save your complaints for Rina, it was her idea. She wanted come herself but she was running a fever so I made her stay home, doctors orders."

Haraki looked at her and Himeko continued. "And about Michiru, I was in charge of her so naturally I brought her with me."

"You call this taking care of her?" Haraki asked while Kari dragged Michiru by her arm into a small area.

"Stay here!" Kari told Michiru.

"Fine," Michiru pouted and sat down as Taji came over.

"Is everything alright?" He asked.

"Hey!" Michiru said, his eyes winded as she looked at him. "You're Taji right? Taji Hadako?" Taji nodded.

"Now who am I?" she asked as she stood up.

"That's easy, You're Michiru."

"Yup, but you can call me Michi!" Michiru told him.

"Okay' Michi.'" He said.

"Oh, and your already know about the whole Zodiac thing right?"

"Right." Taji said.

"So can I hug you?" She asked.

Kari grabbed Michiru's arm. "What are you thinking? Do you know where you are?"

"Yes," Michiru rolled her eyes. "Look I know he won't mind if I transform and you know what? I bet you think Taji's so hot you just want to keep him to yourself! you probably hug him every day."

"What? Hell no! Who would want to do that?"

"Uh… me!" Michiru said as she jumped up and grabbed Taji. He fell and she transformed. "What the? Was that an explosion?" One of the girls asked.

"What's going on back here?" one of the boys said as the curtains opened.

"Hey where'd the rabbit come from?"

"And aren't these Michiru's clothes?" Keiichiro said as he picked up her shirt. "They are…" "It's weird," another boy said.

"It's not as weird as this dress is it? All these ruffles, it's horrible." Haraki said.

The students immediately forgot about Michiru and surrounded Haraki while Taji ran by with Michiru in his arms.

'_Thank you Haraki! Embarrassing yourself to help.'_

A couple minutes later the four Sohma girls and Taji were on the roof with Michiru sitting on Taji's head. Himeko, who had put her blue coat on, was standing with Michiru's clothes. "What you did was uncalled for you're going to be grounded for one week," she said. "We're just lucky Haraki was able to create a diversion."

"Yeah, all she had to do was bat those pretty eyelashes of her and…" Kari didn't finish her sentence, Haraki punched her.

"Next time I'll knock you off the roof!" she said.

"Damn rat…" Kari whispered.

Himeko looked at them, and then at Michiru. "Okay Michiru, come on."

"But I would like to stay." Michiru said.

"Fine, I'll give you a couple minutes to say your goodbyes."

"Oh Hime, your so dull." Michiru said.

Himeko ignored her and looked at Kari and Haraki. "Both of you stand over there." She said as she pointed to an area over to the left, they did.

"Now, I want you give me a simple answer to this question. What is the last letter of the alphabet?" she asked.

"Z?" Haraki and Kari said as Himeko took a camera out of her pocket and snapped a picture. "Rina wanted a picture. That should be a nice shot" she as she picked up Michiru and left.

"See ya!" Michiru waved a paw.

"Himeko!" Kari growled and went after her.

"Oh I don't know what Rina will do if she sees me dressed like this, she'll probably laugh like crazy…" Haraki said while sitting down and taking off the dress coat.

"No, Haraki it's cold and your bronchial tubes…"

"Anything is better than this." She said.

"Look, it may look ridiculous top some but honestly I don't think so. I think it looks pretty good and I think it would be a nice gesture to wear it longer."

Haraki looked at him. "I guess I could…As a favor to the seniors, but before I do can you help me? One of the buttons is snagged in my hair."

"Sure," Taji said while he fiddled with a button

"I guess something like this can be a problem, there."

"Thanks," she said.

They went back in and found Kari sitting in a chair. "You get the camera?" Haraki asked.

"Don't start, it wasn't any use."

Haraki looked at her and then Taji. "Oh and about Himeko, I think it's best if you're never alone with her. It's not that she, herself, is bad, it's just that…when I transformed in front of all those children the one to erase their memories was Himeko."

Taji looked at her as a call came from the office.

"Taji Hadako, paging Mr. Taji Hadako of class 1-D."

"Huh…" Taji said. He left and went to the office, where, he found Himeko in a chair.

"Sorry I had to page you like that." She said.

'_Huh, Haraki just finished warning me and here we are…'_ Taji thought.

Himeko got up and handed him a paper. "Look, here's the address of the main Sohma estate. I want you to meet me there tomorrow and you are not allowed to tell Haraki or the others, nor are you allowed to refuse me request, am I being clear?" She said.

'_But why?'_ he thought _'I mean what if don't go? Does that mean I get my memory erased? Or maybe it could be she only wants to talk to me…'_

"Don't worry!" Said Michiru, who, had changed back. "I'll be there to keep an eye on you, and I'll keep the other one on Hime."

"Michiru." Himeko said.

"What? I'd be nervous if I was him, being around a mysterious woman like you."

"Just remember…" Himeko said as she took Michiru's hand and left.

"Okay" Taji said as Himeko left. _'I wonder what she wants…it seems odd that she wants me to come to the Sohma estate by myself…and even more odd that I'm not allowed to tell Haraki, Kari and Seiya. I wonder what's going to be waiting for me when I get there?'_


	9. Episode 8 The Melting Snow

Episode 8-The melting snow

_Himeko: Since long ago, weather by Rina, Akito, or my father I have often been called upon numerous occasions suppress the memories of others. I knew the suffering it would cause Haraki if I erased her friends memories, but I had no choice. _

_Rina: Himeko you're gentle, but you can be so cold _

_Himeko: It seems as if the words Rina spoke that day were truer than I thought. _

-Seiya's house-

Kari frantically ran down the stairs and threw open the door to the living room, where, Seiya and Haraki were watching TV. "Guys he's gone I can't find him." She said.

"I assume you mean Taji?" Seiya said.

"If you would listen then you'd know that he said he was going to a friend's house today." Haraki said.

Kari looked at her.

"Though his absence is felt" Seiya said.

-Main Estate-

Taji stood in front of the huge gate to the estate, just being amazed.

'_Wow it's big.'_ He thought. _'I guess the Sohmas must be a large family. I wish I could have told Haraki and the others I was coming here, especially after what she told me about Himeko. Then there's this Rina…could it be that I have to meet her too?'_

As he thought, Michiru appeared on top of the gate in a light purple dress with a dark purple coat. "Hey!" She said.

Taji looked up. "Michi?"

"Yeah, come on and let yourself in." She jumped down.

"Okay…" Taji said as he nervously reached out and opened the gate. He walked into a huge place, it was more like a town then an estate.

"Come in! Welcome to the house of Sohma!" Michiru told him cheerfully.

'_Whoa, it's like at little town and it's so quiet it's like no one else is here…'_ He thought.

"Come on I'll show you the rest of the way to Hime's house." Michiru interrupted his thinking. Taji looked at her briefly.

"You're not scared are you?" She asked, reading the look on his face.

"No."

"I like Hime a lot and I know once you get to know her you will too." Michiru grabbed his hand and lead him to Himeko's house.

-Himeko's place-

Taji sat on the ground kneeling, while Himeko got up and opened the sliding door in the room. This time she wore a black skirt and a white shirt with a white coat over it and black slippers. "Make yourself at home," she told him.

"Uh okay…" Taji said as he watched her. _'Though I'm sure that's easier said than done'_ He thought. He started looking around the room, it was mostly normal stuff, books, a desk, a shelf in the back, but then he saw a photograph on her desk._ 'A photograph? Why does she have that there? It doesn't look like she keeps many personal things in here, and she looks like the type who likes to keep up a professional appearance.' _He then realized something. _'I wonder why she wanted me… Could it be that she's mad at me? I mean if she is concerned about appearances someone from a big important family like the Sohmas may not want to be associated with a boy who used to live in a tent!'_ he slumped forward.

"Taji you don't look so well, do you want Hime to look at you? She is a doctor, you know." Himeko walked over and sat down "Yes, I am a doctor but my practice is devoted exclusively to the Sohmas and my time is valuable, so right to the point then?"

Taji nodded.

"Do you like living in that house with Seiya and the others?"

Taji nodded again.

"All the more reason you should leave. It would be best if you had nothing more to do with the Sohmas. You see an evil shadow looms over this family and even within the family itself few know of our secret in regards to the zodiac. So it's unusual that an outsider would come to learn of it. Ordinarily this would have been corrected immediately but it seems that Rina and her mother decided to leave you alone. So leave before you regret it."

Taji looked at her with a shocked expression. _'Evil?'_ he thought.

"Uh Hime," Michiru said. "I'm going to show Taji the gardens okay?" She took his hand.

"Come on, I'll show you my favorite spot."

Himeko then got up and looked outside, and then at the picture on her desk.

-Outside-

Michiru lead Taji by the hand, showing him around. As they walked Taji kept hearing Himeko's voice in his head. _'An evil shadow looms over this family…' _

Michiru interrupted his thoughts again. "Quiet huh?"

Taji looked at her. "Oh, yes."

"It's quiet because everyone's at the main house preparing for New Years, you see it's a big deal for us, so we have much to do. You know from that tree lined road over there to the main house up there, everyone around here is related to the Sohma family."

Taji looked at her. "All of them?" He gave her a questioning look.

"Yeah." She nodded. "And Seiya and Haraki lived here too, a long time ago. The only ones who can live here are zodiac members or those who know about our curse."

Taji heard Himeko's voice again. _'So it's unusual that an outsider would come to learn of it…'_

They continued walking until they came back to Himeko's house, where, they sat down on the porch.

"Hey you know Hime can barely see out of her left eye?" Michiru said.

Taji looked at her. "Huh?"

"You see, Himeko had a boyfriend once Kaji… and I remember he was really nice, he came to work as her assistant, and when he found out about Himeko and the zodiac, he just shrugged it off. They were gonna get married and Rina was going to allow it, but her mama, Akito, wouldn't let them and that's when she hurt Hime's eye. After it was over no one blamed Rina but they did start to blame Akito, and Kaji, he half blamed himself he seemed fine but Hime knew otherwise so she did the only thing she could do, she erased Kaji's memory. She made him forget they ever fell in love, so Kaji left and Hime cried."

Taji sighed.

"Huh? Taji? You okay? Did I hurt you or something? I'm sorry if I did."

Taji shook his head. "That's not it. You see, I was so worried about coming here but I realize now that all she wanted to do was be kind. She didn't want me to be hurt like Kaji. Though, after what she's been through, she's the one who deserves to be show kindness." He sighed again. Michiru looked at him and gave him a gentle smile. "Well I'm going to get something to warm us up alright? How about you go inside?" She walked off and Taji got up and took off his boots. Meanwhile, Himeko, who had heard what she said and was watching Taji. "I think it's best if you just forget everything Michiru told you," she said.

"Oh but I realize that…"

Himeko held her hand up. "That's enough I think I've said enough for one day."

"Wait I was thinking you could show me around or…" Taji tried to approach her, but he slipped. Himeko grabbed him quickly in an attempt to pull him up but they ended up falling anyway, with Hime's slipper flying off in the process. Taji ended up on top of her and transformed. When he got up Taji found himself looking at a sea horse.

"Oh no! Let's see… fresh water, no sea water which is? Oh no!"

-Flashback, Hime's office, four years ago-

Himeko was standing up and working at her desk when a man entered the room; he looked younger than she did.

"Hey I'm Kaji Sohma, starting today I'm your assistant, and you know we're in the same family and we've never met before but all my friends warned me that you were beautiful."

Himeko took a folder out and put it on his desk.

"This will be your desk." She said.

"Huh? Snow," Kaji said while looking out the window, then he turned to Himeko. "Hey tell me, when the snow melts what does it become?"

"Water right?" Himeko replied.

"No it becomes spring."

Himeko looked at him.

_Himeko: From then, I knew there was something good about him and as I came to know him he became a light in my life, and yes, even if I had become a bit cold like Rina said I knew he was the fresh, vibrant spring in my life, we seemed drawn to each other…it was like a beautiful dream, until that day. _

Kaji sits looking at a little seahorse, shocked and freaked out all in one. "Salt water? No fresh water? What do I do? Himeko!" A little while later Kaji sat in front of Himeko, rubbing her with a towel.

"Well, I will say this; if you put a real seahorse in a tub like that they would have died." Himeko told him.

"I was afraid of that, and you know what? I had been wondering why you wouldn't let me hold you, and now I know…but it doesn't matter, though."

Himeko took the towel off of her head, so it sat on her shoulders and looked at him.

"And Hime…" He continued. "I'm glad that I got to know you and I'm even happier to have fallen in love with you." He put his head to hers and she cried.

_Himeko: I couldn't and didn't want to stop the tears as they kept coming and from then on it seemed as if a new door had opened. I felt happier, more relaxed and I laughed as never before, but I should have known...All dreams must end. _

Himeko and Taji sit kneeling before Rina who is leaning on the leg of her table. Her hair is a bit has shorter and she's wearing a white kimono with a purple sash and a blue coat over it.

"Kaji and I wish to be married." Himeko told her.

"Depends…" Rina started "Are you ready to take on the responsibility, the responsibility of the curse? Do you know what it means? And so you promise you won't leave because of it?" She asked seriously, Rina had heard of how previous Zodiac members were hurt, she wanted to be sure that it didn't happen again.

"Yes." Kaji and Himeko replied at the same time.

Rina sat up on her knees. "Then I will allow it." She said.

After she did, the door opened, it was Akito, she was glaring at Rina. She heard every word and was not happy, how could Rina push her own family away from her?

"Rina!"

"Mama?" Rina said.

Akito went over to her daughter. "What are you thinking? Are you trying to put a gap in the bond? Are you trying to push them away?!"

"What bond?" Rina asked.

Akito slapped her, didn't she understand? If they got married then Himeko would leave, never to be seen again!

"But they wish too… and if they are truly in love then…"

Akito slapped Rina again. "Look, it doesn't matter! Even if you allow it…" she picked up the vase that was on the table. "I won't!" she slammed it to the ground out of frustration, but the pieces flew and Himeko leaned over with her hand over her left eye, she then looked down at the blood covering her hand."

"Himeko!" Rina got up and put her arms around Akito's waist. "Mama! Stop! Kaji get Himeko out of here! Now!"

_Himeko: After that I didn't see him much… I think he had blamed himself even though that wasn't entirely true. Every time I tried to console him he'd look at me sadly, or just leave and I didn't know what to do, then…_

Rina was in her room with Himeko sitting in front of her. "Himeko, Mama told me that Kaji's memory must be erased. She said he wants you to, that he wants to be relived of the pain. She says you are the only one who can save him though I don't believe her entirely and I'm sorry. But I don't think there's a choice."

_Himeko: I didn't want to but I had to. I had no choice but to do it when the order was given, whether by Akito or Rina._

Himeko sat with Kaji a couple days later with her hand over his eyes.

"Kaji it's going to be all right now." She said.

"Himeko?"

"Huh?"

"I'm really glad to have met you and fallen in love with you but you know… I don't want it to end this way."

Himeko choked back tears and let him go.

_Himeko: After that, he left, I knew it had to be done and though I didn't want to, I had no choice. It was afterwards that I became colder. _

-Himeko's place, present time-

Taji sat on the porch with Kaji's picture, just talking to it… "Kaji, I hope that where you are you're happy… though I wish you could still be with Himeko, but, I know if we try we can both bring happiness to someone…"

"Huh?" Himeko muttered as she began to come too. She didn't know where she was for the moment as she sat up, and looked at Taji.

"Huh?" Taji looked at her for a second before he turned around. "Sorry, I wasn't looking. And as for you, I didn't know what else to doso I brought you up here where you could lay and covered you with my jacket."

As he talked Himeko got up and got herself dressed, then, she went over to him. "So did you see it? My zodiac form?"

"Yeah it was kind of cute, and I'm glad you're okay." He then handed Himeko her picture of Kaji

"Here, I hope you don't mind that I took it without asking." She took it as a light snow began to fall. "Snow…" Taji said.

Himeko looked outside, remembering the old question as she did so, she turned to Taji. "Huh… Hey, tell me, when the snow melts what does it become?"

"Huh?" Taji looked at Himeko. "Oh it becomes spring right?"

It was Himeko's turn to look at him.

"So I know that no matter how much snow there is it will all melt into a nice spring." He spaced out for minute but snapped out of it.

"Hey, you want me to get something to warm us up? Huh… 'warm us up' feels like déjà vu." "Hey!" a voice said. It turned out to be Seiya, she wore a dark blue coat over her clothes. "I came here to see what was going on and I found a little rabbit instead." She brought Michiru over. "Michiru? Huh, it's not déjà vu. You have drinks"

Michiru gave him a gentle smile.

"Hime," Seiya called as she threw a can her way.

Himeko turned around and caught it. "So what brings you here?" she asked Seiya.

"Oh just walking," She said.

"That's a lie. You came to spy on the New Year's preparations didn't you?"

They then started talking, which was actually more like an argument.

"Don't let these two full you they've been friends for years," Michiru whispered to Taji as the argument stopped as Seiya turned to Taji.

"Oh Taji, did you ask Hime what animal she is?" She asked.

Himeko looked at her. "One more word Seiya and the entire manga industry is gonna know every embarrassing thing you've done since you were four."

Seiya held her hand up. "Understood."

"It's not that hard to figure out." Michiru said.

"Michiru!" Himeko scolded, Michiru remained silent after that.

"Anyway I don't see what the big deal is," Taji said as he opened his drink. "I thought it was cute…" He then looked at the drink. "It's so warm…" he muttered, then, he looked at Himeko, who gave him a gentle smile.

Later, as Taji was walking with Seiya he looked around some more.

"I can see how today might have been stressful, but now that it's over Hime isn't so bad is she?" Seiya asked.

"No she was actually very nice." Taji said, then he stopped. He saw something not too far off, there was a window. Rina stood there in a black dress holding a book, and looking outside. She looked at Taji for a second, and smiled gently, then walked off.

'_Was that…?'_

"Taji?" Seiya interrupted his thoughts. "Come on you don't want to get lost in here."

"Right," Taji said as he followed her.

When they arrived home they went straight for the living room where Seiya had left Haraki and Kari. "Haraki? Kari? We're home!" Seiya said. "Huh?" She looked down and found Haraki asleep, resting her head on her arms and Kari asleep on the floor. She smiled. "It's probably best not to wake them."

Taji smiled too.

And at that moment, in her own office, Himeko picked up Kaji's picture and looked at it, she smiled briefly and looked outside.


	10. Episode 9 Ringing in the New Year

Episode 9 Ringing in the New Year

_Taji: This year has gone by so fast, December seemed to fly away in the blink of an eye and now it's the last day of the month, New Years eve, and everyone's here helping to clean._

-Seiya's house-

Haraki was busy cleaning the door, she was trying to be careful but it didn't work, her hand went through it.

"Dammit! Can't you do anything right?" Kari walked by with the TV.

Haraki glared at her. "You're the last person I need to hear from right now."

"What's that supposed to mean?! You trying to start something?" Kari asked.

As soon as she did Ryou came over. "Stop horsing around you two."

"Who asked you, you dirty bastard?!" Kari snapped.

Ryou took the duster he was using and wrapped it around Kari's mouth. "You gonna talk to me like that after I came to help you out of the goodness of my heart?" he hissed.

Meanwhile, Taji patched up the door while Haraki watched him..

"Sorry Mr. Hadako…" Haraki said.

"It's no big deal." Taji told her.

As he fixed it Seiya walked by and observed them, then she walked past the bathroom there was a sign next to it. She looked at it and out of her own curiosity she went in and came to find Hiroki cleaning. "Hiroki?" She said.

"Didn't you read the sign? It's closed for cleaning."

"Yeah but you cleaning and…"

He looked at her. "Hey, did you know? In many ways the flow of electrical waves through our bodies can be compared to the flow of water?" She looked at him with a confused expression; he continued. "Over 60% of the human body is made up of water. In other words, if you were to round it up, people are water. Many people fail to realize this considering the body's solid appearance. But nonetheless, on the inside, we are essentially a liquid. Water is continually flowing through us; it streams through our veins. It sustains all parts of our bodies: the head, the heart, the stomach, the kidneys, the bladder..."

Seiya left and sighed against the door, then she went into her office. On the floor of her office sat a man in a black suit looking at her.

"I've been waiting for you! I need the last twenty pages of your manga today! I already had to tell the print shop and the company to wait until today." He stated seriously. "You know we can't release the story with last chapter missing! It would…"

Seiya slammed the door in his face.

Meanwhile, Haraki and Kari were busy trying to move a bookshelf across the floor. Seiya tried to sneak past them but…

"Seiya!" Haraki called.

"Come on! Give us a hand!" Kari said.

Seiya looked at them and grabbed the front of it, as they tried to move it. "Come on! Put your backs into it!"

As they moved it, the man came back, he was actually Seiya's main editor. "Seiya!" He growled as he glared at her.

"Oh Michel! Grab that end!" she said, ignoring his glare.

"You should be working!" He said.

"Come on! Hurry!" Seiya ordered.

Michel sighed. "Fine." He stated as he grabbed an end.

They moved the shelf while Taji, who was straightening out the door, talked to a dusting Ryou. "So what do think we should have with the New Year's Soba noodles?" He asked.

Ryou thought. "Let's see…maybe some onions, fish…"

"Maybe bean sprouts," Taji said.

"Ah! And some tempura." Ryou finished as Haraki, Kari and Michel came by with the shelf. "Heave! Ho! Heave! Ho! Heave!"

It was then that Michel realized something, Seiya was gone. "That the? She's gone? Where'd she go?" He asked with slight anger in his voice as he ran off to find Seiya.

After he left Haraki and Kari struggled with the book case by themselves. "Wait!" Haraki called. "You're gonna drop it!" Kari told her as it fell.

"Tim-ber!" Seiya sang, as she 'popped' her head out of a bush as the shelf fell completely down, breaking the door, again…)

Seiya sighed. "Lovely, they smashed the house again."

The other two girls looked at the mess. "It's your fault! Your end fell first you damn rat!" Kari pointed at Haraki.

Haraki turned. "Really? Then your eyes must be as weak as your arms, stupid cat."

Taji looked at them. "Uh… You're okay right?" he asked in an attempt to stop the oncoming fight.

It didn't work, the girls continued arguing until Ryou took his duster and wrapped it around Kari's eyes and drug her down.

"Why does it always gotta be me?" She groaned.

"Now get off your ass and start cleaning it up." Ryou demanded.

A couple minutes later, Haraki picked up the books as Taji was fixed the door for the second time and Ryou was dusted. Michel, on the other hand, wasn't helping he was just getting angrier by the minute as he looked for Seiya. "Seiya?" He called. "Seiya? Seiya, where are you?" As he called he circled Kari, who was screwing in a lamp but he wasn't too careful…his circling caused Kari to trip and fall through the door.

"You clumsy idiot!" Ryou took the duster and held Kari up by her foot, causing her dark purple slippers to fly off.

"It's not my fault!" She snapped.

As that went on, Seiya leaned against the kitchen counter eating a rice ball.

"What the hell are you doing?" Michel asked, he gave her a hard glare.

"Eating. I was hungry so…"

Michel took the rice ball. "You don't have time to be hungry! I need twenty pages! Not two! twenty!"

Seiya nodded. "I will, I will, but first I need a favor. Could you hold out your hands for me?" Michel looked at her.

"Please? Once you do it I'll be able to finish drawing."

"Really?" He asked.

Seiya nodded and he held his hands out. "Now put your head down a bit." she ordered. He did. "Donations for the poor beggar boy?" Seiya ran.

Meanwhile, Taji and Haraki fixed the door, for the third time. Haraki looked at Kari, she was sitting and slumping. "You know if you're not going to help you could at least move out of the way."

"You're the last person I need to hear from." Kari stated.

Ryou looked at her and then Taji. "Hey Taji? Didn't you say you'd do the shopping?"

"Oh yeah," Taji said as he stood up.

As soon as he did Seiya appeared out of nowhere. "Shopping? Thanks! I can help you."

After she said it a rope went over her head, and she found herself being dragged by Michel. "Never mind. I've got something to do! Sorry!" She said.

Michel drug her into her to her office, where, she sat "pondering" and changing her position. "Move your hand and start! I want to see characters and dialogue!" He demanded.

Seiya looked up at him. "I'm sorry but with you standing over me like that… well…. It's bothering me. The ideas aren't flowing through the pen like they should." She lied.

"I don't care if it's bothering you! I don't want complaints! It's too late for that! I want ink!" Seiya stood up. "I'm gonna go find some quiet inspiration."

"Fine I'll leave! But you better be drawing when I get back. Or else…" Michel left and after about fifteen minutes he came back, to see her sitting and writing. He sighed, and left, then he realized something… she couldn't have gotten that concentrated in just a few minutes! And it was too quiet, she normally muttered to herself when working. He threw the door open again, and found that it was actually a dummy. "Hey!" He exclaimed, then, he went off to find Seiya, who was outside trimming some hedges.

"There we go…" she said when she finished, but when she looked up she found Michel over her with the rope.

Meanwhile, at the store, Taji and Haraki stood in front of the shelves while two boys ran around playing tag. "So Mr. Hadako what are you planning to make?" Haraki asked.

"New Year's cakes." Taji replied.

Haraki looked at him unsurely. "Uh… New Year's cakes?"

"Yes, I just hope I picked ingredients everyone likes."

Haraki looked at him again. "Oh, but, Seiya, Kari and I will be going back to the main house tonight. I'm sorry, I should have explained earlier, it's sort a Sohma family tradition. I guess it was such an obvious thing to us that we'd be going we forgot to tell you."

Taji looked back at her. "It's okay, but if that's the case then I guess I'm getting too much." He started putting some of the packages back as the two boys came straight for them. "Haraki! Look out!" Taji said.

It was too late, they ran into her anyway.

Later, as they were walking, Haraki sat in Taji's pocket and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry, I did come to help."

"It's all right" Taji told her.

Back at the house, Michel was looking for Seiya again. "Seiya?! Seiya?" He walked all around the house and found her in her office. "You're working?" He asked.

She didn't even look up. "Hey Michel, can you hand me that newspaper?" She asked as she pointed off to the side.

"Research right?" He asked as he searched and handed it to her. "You're working hard."

"Of course I am," Seiya said as she picked up some scissors. "I have to get ready for the New Year too."

Michel then looked down and saw a kite with the kanji for 'dog' written on it. "What the…?" He said, then he made off with it,

Seiya chased him into the yard and down the path. "Michel! Give me back my kite! Please?" she whined.

"No! You're not getting this back until you're done! I've had it with you!" He continued to run, not noticing Seiya wasn't following him anymore. Seiya had gone inside with everyone else, they were around the table.

"Thank you for this food." They said together, as Michel came in panting. Seiya looked up at him. "Hey Michel, you look tired. Come in and have a seat." She smiled at him and he sighed. After dinner Seiya started walking across the porch, with Michel following her.

"I'm so full, now I can spend the rest of the year without a care." She stated.

"You can say that _after_ you finish the last chapter!" Michel said, he was beyond mad now.

"Still, you can't deny the Soba was excellent."

"Listen to me," Michel started. "I have had it with you. You can't afford to worry about soba or New Years, you have a deadline."

Seiya ignored him and looked at her nails, which were painted light purple, the same color as her sweater. "In fact I'd probably eat soba everyday if it weren't for what it did to my nails."

Michel blinked. "Nails?" He didn't see anything wrong with her nails, except for the fact that they were purple.

"Well if you eat too much Soba your fingernails start to smell funny you know?"

Michel looked at his and sniffed them.

"Michel you're a good sport!" Seiya giggled and walked away.

Michel slumped down, she tricked him again and she was acting weirder than usual, maybe she'd been sniffing her nail polish? He ignored that for the moment and mumbled to himself. "I am in hell…" He started. "I know it, eternally damned…fire, brimstone, and burning flesh…abandoning all hope."

His thoughts were soon interrupted by Ryou's voice. "Hey, the artist girl told me to give this to you."

Michel looked up. "Hm?" He took an envelope from Ryou's hand, and opened it to find the last chapter completely done. "She was already done? So I ran around for nothing…? Seiya!" he yelled.

Seiya watched him and giggled a bit.

As she watched him Taji was in the kitchen doing dishes and Hiroki came in with more.

"New Year's cakes…" He said, noticing the cakes on the counter. "They look delicious."

"You think so?" Taji asked.

"Yes…but I wonder, will that be enough for the four of you?"

Taji looked at him "Oh no, I only made enough for myself, Haraki and the others are going to be spending New Years at the Sohma estate."

Hiroki looked at Taji with a concerned expression.

Later, after the boys had left, Seiya, who was wearing her coat over a purple dress, found Haraki and Kari in the living room. "It's almost time to go, don't you think you should get ready?" She asked, they stayed still.

"Uh Haraki…? Kari…? We're going to be late." She said.

"Shut up….I'm not going" They said at the same time.

Seiya looked at them and sat down. A couple minutes later Taji came in. "Taji it's horrible-neither one of these two wants to go with me back to Sohma house and I even got dressed up for New Years…." She fake whined.

Kari glared at her; she didn't see the fakeness in Seiya's acting. "Don't whine! You're supposed to be an adult!"

Taji sat down as well. "You're not going back?"

"I haven't been to that place in four months, I'm not gonna go now because of some stupid tradition." Kari told him.

Haraki picked up the tea cup that was sitting in front of her. "I had reasons for leaving. They'd seem meaningless if I went back tonight."

Seiya sighed. "Why do you have two be like this? I mean, you've gone every year before." She then faced Taji. "You see, New Year's is a big night for the Sohmas. It's the one holiday the whole extended family gets together."

"Wow…that does sound big." Taji said.

Seiya nodded. "Yes, just getting through all the introductions can be an event itself, but the real highlight of the evening is the Zodiac Banquet."

Taji gave her a questioning look. "A banquet?"

Seiya nodded again. "Yes, it's probably the most important part of our celebration, and as the name implies it's a banquet that only zodiac members and Rina are allowed to attended. The zodiac member of the New Year performs a dance. This year it's Michi's turn, though nothing can compare to the beautiful; dance Haraki did three years ago."

"Wow."

Haraki picked up three of the little snacks and threw them at Seiya. "I told you never to talk about that!"

"Right."

"Sounds nice, a banquet…just like in the old folktale." Taji said.

"It doesn't matter to me," Kari interrupted. "I mean, it's not I'm allowed to go anyway!"

"Why?" Taji asked.

"Well," Seiya started "It's been a long standing rule that the cat isn't allowed to attended. I suppose that's to keep in line with the old folk tale as well."

"Sorry…" Taji said softly.

Kari looked at him "Ah, it's noting to be upset about, I don't care, and it's not the reason I'm not going if that's what you're thinking."

Seiya leaned over and whispered to Taji. "I think she's afraid she'll get hurt…I mean with Yuta there…"

"Shut up!" Kari glared at her.

"In any event," Haraki interrupted. "We'd have to stay until the third, which means we'd be leaving Mr. Hadako alone."

Taji and Kari looked at her.

"Stupid cat did you just realize that?"

Kari grabbed her. "Don't call me stupid!"

"Then don't act stupid, stupid."

"Well, thanks for worrying but I'll be fine." Taji told them. "I mean knowing you care about me is enough, I'm happy and I want you to be happy too so go and enjoy yourselves. I mean it's a special night, and you'll get to see your parents for the first time in a while. Trust me, I'll be fine." He left.

"Well, I guess I'll go back…" Haraki said.

"Guess I've got no choice." Kari said.

"If it's what he wants…"

"And when he says it like that…"

A couple minutes later they stood at the door, Haraki wearing a black coat, and Kari wearing a dark purple one. "Be careful and watch for crowds." Taji told them.

"It's okay; there won't be many people out right now." Seiya told him.

"You be careful too okay?" Haraki told him.

"Right, be safe!" Taji waved them off as they started walking off.

As they walked Kari spoke."You know he always use to leave his bedroom window wide open." "What were you doing in his room?" Haraki asked.

"I wasn't, I saw it from the outside."

"Yeah, he can be careless sometimes, this morning he accidentally tripped on the stairs."

"Yeah and yesterday he ran into the wall."

Seiya turned around. "You two…you sound like a couple of old ladies the way you worry. I mean, don't get me wrong I understand your concern for Taji, but you already said you'd go back."

"Who said I was concerned?!" Kari asked.

"Stop talking nonsense! Let's go" Haraki said. The two of them walked on, and Seiya got an idea.

"Wait a minute..." She started "Now that I think about it there was an article in the paper about a rash of burglaries. The culprit is still at large, or so they say."

Both girls stopped.

'_Great! If a burglar came to the house-he might just let him in!_' Kari thought.

'_He'd either give him a seat, or try to defend himself and get hurt!'_ Haraki thought.

They just stood there and Seiya smiled, she was pleased with herself. "Come on you two, don't stand in the middle of the street like that…"

"You'll get run over." A voice interrupted. The girls turned around to find Hiroki behind them in a long black trench coat.

"Hiroki, what a…surprise." Seiya said.

'_Why can't he just say "hello" like a normal person?'_ Kari thought.

'_Where in the world did he get that trench coat?'_ Haraki thought.

"Can we help you with something?" Seiya asked.

"Perhaps," Hiroki told her.

"Are you looking for Taji? He's still at the house. You see we were on our way to visit our family."

"Then for him, this will be a lonely New Year's. Until now Taji has always spent New Year's with his mother, but this is the first year since her death. Which means this is the first New Year's he'll see without his mother by his side. He'll spend tonight alone, I tried to stay but he wouldn't hear of it, he said I should be with my own family, but what about him? What family does he have? And how will he feel, sitting alone, thinking of all those New Year's he shared with his mother and will never share again? How will he feel when the bells begin to chime? The same bells he stayed up late to hear with his mother?"

He stopped and Haraki started thinking. _'How did he feel standing there as we left…?'_

'…_When he smiled and waved goodbye?'_ Kari thought.

Hiroki continued. "Do you truly think he'll be unaffected by that? Do you really think he'll be all right?"

'_How does he feel right now… ?'_ Kari thought.

'…_All alone in that house?'_ Haraki thought. Then, she and Kari both moved and hit something. Seiya looked at them. "Do I want to know what happened?"

_Hiroki: I can explain _

Kari looked up. "What are you doing? You know Rina's just gonna be pissed."

_Hiroki: Kari bumped her head as she stood up_

Haraki looked at her, "Rina won't be pissed. You know she's better than that."

_Hiroki: The thing she bumped into was Haraki's right cheek, this happened due to the fact both of them started moving at the same time. End of commentary. _

"Yeah, Yeah" Kari said, while she and Haraki walked in the opposite direction. "Why don't you go see him if you're worried?"

"I'm busy." Haraki said.

Seiya watched them, she was getting confused. "Where are you going exactly?"

Both girls turned around. "I'm going home!"

They left and Seiya glanced at Hiroki. "So Hiroki, I'm under the impression that you had all of this planned out."

Hiroki looked at her. "I didn't really know what would happen if I came, I only knew that I wanted to help Taji that's all." He turned and walked away. "I wish you a happy New Year." "I'm not sure what to make of that one." Seiya said as he walked.

Meanwhile Haraki and Kari were in a full-fledged run. _'Why?'_ Haraki thought. _'Why didn't I realize sooner?'_

'_I just didn't see it!'_ Kari thought. _'But how could I? He always seemed so calm…'_

'_Whenever I see him he has such a calm smile, he always tries to look on the bright side of things, but still…'_

'_Saying he doesn't mind being alone…that's he's alright….'_

'_There isn't a person alive who'd really feel that way!'_ They thought as the approached and threw the door open to find Taji sitting at the table with his mother's picture, he had faint tears in his eyes, but they could still see them.

He looked at them. "It's you…you startled me but why are you?"

Haraki then moved her hand and caught one of his small tears at it fell.

He looked at it. "Oh no I wasn't crying! Really." He sat back and looked at the panting girls. _'Thank goodness…'_ Haraki thought.

'_If we'd kept on going…'_ Kari thought _'…if we hadn't stopped and turned around…'_

'_We would have left him here…crying…'_ Haraki thought, as they both collapsed.

"You okay?" Taji asked, he looked them over.

"We have to watch the first sunrise…" Haraki muttered.

"…Yeah and I wanna have some more of those soba noodles…" Kari muttered.

They continued panting as Taji looked at them and smiled gently.

'_I'm home…'_ Haraki and Kari thought.

As that went on, Seiya had arrived at the main estate.

"Welcome home!" They greeted her "Seiya, good to see you!"

As she walked, Michiru came running down the hall wearing an elaborate Kimono. "Seiya!" She said.

"Hello Michi," Seiya greeted her.

Michiru looked around her. "Hey, where are Kari and Haraki?"

"They both decided to stay home tonight, but I'm looking forward to your dance." Seiya said while she walked off. "I wouldn't miss it for the world." She kept walking until she found Rina's room. Rina was standing at the window in a long blue dress with a sash, next to her was an older woman with long, _long _black hair.

"Rina?"

Rina turned around and looked at Seiya, and then the woman she nodded to her and the woman left.

"Haraki and Kari….they aren't coming."

"Where are they?" She asked, in her usual, gentle tone.

"Well, I don't know how to say this and there's no point in making excuses, they skipped out." She said.

Rina nodded. "Okay." _'I'll just see them another time…'_

A couple hours later, Taji, Haraki and Kari sat on the roof, where, the girls told him about Hiroki.

"So you talked to Hiroki?" He said.

Haraki nodded. "Ran into him actually."

Taji looked up. _'Thank you Hiroki, you'll be the first person I call this year, I promise.'_ Then he looked at them. "But… are you sure this is okay? I mean what about your family? I wouldn't want you to get in trouble because of me."

Haraki smiled. "It's okay; we'll just go back before the third and visit with everyone." _'Probably'_ She and Kari thought at the same time.

"All right," Taji nodded and turned to the horizon.

Haraki started thinking again. _'I'm sure the banquet is in full swing right now… Even so…' _

'_I'm actually glad I missed it.'_ Kari thought.

'_I don't feel guilty for not going…'_

'_It's kind of funny….'_ Kari thought.

'_I thought I had so many reasons for not wanting to go back …'_ Haraki thought.

'..But the truth is...'

At that moment, Taji stood up. "There's the sun." He turned to them. "Hey, have you decided on your wishes? I have mine."

Haraki looked out to the horizon. _'The truth of it is…'_

'…_Maybe, all I really wanted…'_ Kari thought.

'…_.was to spend New Year's together, with him.' _

Kari stood up. "This year I'm gonna beat that damn rat!" she said.

Haraki sighed. "You're wishing aren't you?"

_Taji: And so here we are, at the start of a beautiful New Year with such a beautiful sunrise. And seeing it with Haraki and Kari means so much to me. I know it's going to be a wonderful year. _


	11. Episode 10 Haruka's Painted in Black

Episode 10-Haruka's painted in Black and White

In a downtown part of Tokyo a young girl, with shoulder length white hair and black strands of hair on either side of her face sat reading a map. She wore a long black skirt, black shirt, a white jacket, and with 2 necklaces: a black choker, and a sliver one with an 'H' charm on it, two boys were watching her.

"Hey check it out," one said. "That girl over there is unbelievably hot."

"I know!" The other said. "She looks likes she's on her way to a rave or something." "You're right she looks like a total club kid…with a girl like that I bet we could have some fun."

She then pulled some black gloves on her hand and got on…a bike, the boys watched her skeptically.

_Taji: Winter break is over and the third school term has just started. _

Haraki and Kari stood outside of a store and Kari was yelling at Haraki.

"Wipe that smug little smirk off your face before I come over there and do it for you! Yeah you'll be sorry then won't you? And I'll make you say it!"

"I'm sorry." Haraki said.

"Shut Up! You're a real wise ass! You know that?" Kari told her.

"At least I'm not the noisy idiot causing a scene in front of the store."

"Oh, you've done it know girly! We're takin' this outside!" Kari rolled up one of her jacket sleeves.

Haraki looked at her. "We're already outside you stupid cat."

At that moment, Taji came out. "Sorry it took so long."

Haraki turned to face him. "Hey, find everything you needed?"

Taji didn't answer right away, he looked at Kari, who, was glaring. "Yeah…" he said, and as they walked home he started thinking. _'It seems like Haraki and Kari are getting along worse than ever. It's too bad, especially since my New Year's wish was that they'd get along a little better. Though it doesn't have much of an effect does it?'_

As he thought Haraki and Kari kept arguing until Haraki grew tired of it. "You know, you are starting to get on my nerves." She said.

Kari turned into a fighting position. "Oh yeah? So why don't you try and do something about it, girly?"

Haraki did, she picked up some leeks from one of the bags and shoved them in Kari's mouth. "Leeks!" Kari said as she fell down.

"Kari?" Taji looked at her.

"There. That'll keep her quiet for awhile" Haraki said, then, she coughed.

Later that night, Haraki and Taji were drinking tea when Seiya came in the room. She wore a white robe over a light purple nightgown and was brushing her hair. "Hey! I'm out of the tub…Who's in next? Haraki?"

Haraki looked up at her. "No I'll think I'll skip tonight."

Seiya looked at her. "Okay…"

'_Just once I'd like to knock her through the roof'_ Haraki thought.

Taji looked at her, she looked a bit pale. "What's up? Are you felling okay?" he asked. "Well…no, I think I'm coming down with a cold." Haraki admitted.

"A cold?" Taji put his hand on her forehead. "Hmm you do have a fever."

Seiya sat down and started going through some drawers. Well, as Hime says, it's best to treat these things early. Take some medicine, get some rest, all that… I think I have something…" Taji looked at Haraki again. "You know, maybe you should stay home tomorrow."

"No, it's okay, it won't come to that."

"You sure? We do have the endurance run tomorrow."

"So they still have those?" Seiya asked. "It seems cruel, making you kids run around in the cold…"

Then Kari came in, she wore dark blue pajama pants and a black spaghetti strap shirt. "An endurance run huh?"

Taji nodded "Yes, you didn't know?"

Kari didn't answer, "The endurance run…a set distance…a certain time to beat…In other words…It's a race! Okay rat girl! Tomorrow we're gonna find out who's the fastest! "

Taji looked at Kari. "Kari, Haraki's starting to come down with a cold…"

Kari ignored that fact as well. "So you better give her something to eat and put her to bed! She's not getting out of this!"

Seiya ignored her all together and handed Haraki some pills. "Here, take one of these… and all joking aside, remember if you strain your body to much you'll transform. Try to be careful."

"I know," Haraki nodded.

Taji watched them. _'I don't know if this is a good idea. I'd feel a lot better if she stayed home to rest…' _

The next morning at school, instead of being in the class room, the students were in the courtyard waiting to start.

"Hey Haraki…how are you feeling?" Taji asked as he approached her.

Haraki looked up at him. "Don't worry, I'll manage…besides if I don't do this that stupid cat will never let me here the end of it." She looked at Kari, she was glaring at both of them. Haraki ignored her and stood up, she faced Taji. "And you know I haven't seen Mr. Tsukio around today…"

"Right," Taji started. "He thought this would be a good day to skip, but Hiroki's here."

After he said it, a whistle sounded. "Okay boys! You're up!" The coach said. "Everybody make your way to the starting line at the gate."

"Well I gotta go," Taji left Haraki.

"Good luck." she told him.

"Hey Hiroki," Taji started as he came up to Hiroki. "Let's try and do our best for Ryou, since he's not here."

Hiroki looked at him. "Okay, I've never been good at running, but I'll try."

Then, the coach stood in front of the students with a pop gun. "On your mark, get set…Go!" he shot it in the air.

As soon as they started Hiroki fell.

"Hiroki? You okay?" Taji asked.

Hiroki looked up "Sorry Taji, I tried but I can't run any farther, so go on, I'll be right behind you only ...walking."

Taji nodded. "Okay."

The coach looked at him skeptically. "Walk, crawl, I don't care… Just start Mr. Reatsu!"

Later as Taji was running he started to think. _'I hope Hiroki's all right back there. And I guess it's about time the girls were starting... I hope Haraki really is okay.' _Then he looked over and saw a person lying back in the grass, they had white hair. _'Huh? What's that?'_ He thought. _'That white hair…an old man?'_ He went to investigate.

"Sir what's wrong?" He asked.

The person turned and he saw… _'Wait…he's a she? And she looks about my age…'_ He thought. "Sorry," he said "It's just that-your hair is so white, I thought you were an old man that had fallen down or something. I mean not that you look like an old man."

The girl looked at him. "Have you ever heard of a place called Sohma house?" she asked. Taji looked at her.

Meanwhile Haraki and Kari were in a full-out run. "Yeah eat my dust rat girl!" Kari said.

"Shut up." Haraki told her.

Three girls stopped behind them, panting. "What do they think this is? The 100-meter dash?" One asked.

"That's just stupid." Another said.

While that went on Taji continued to look at the young girl. "Eh, Sohma house? So you're a Sohma?"

"That's right," she nodded. "So you do know it?"

Taji nodded as well. "Yes, by the way I'm Taji…uh?" He noticed she was no longer looking at him, but the road.

"What is it?" He asked.

"She's coming…" Was all the girl said, she got up tied a rope to a pole at the other side of the road.

"She?" Taji watched her. _'Hmm if she's a Sohma, then maybe she's part of the zodiac…'_ Then, he looked at the rope skeptically. "What are you doing?" He then turned and saw Kari and Haraki running down the street.

The girl pulled the rope and Kari tripped. "Got her."

Taji looked at Kari and went over. "Kari! Are you hurt?"

"Mr. Hadako?" Haraki said when he came up.

Kari got up and turned "What the hell are you doing?! Damn it! I was winning and everything!" "If I hadn't tripped you then you wouldn't have stopped would you?" The girl asked.

"Haruka?" Kari said.

_Haruka: By the way what I just did was very dangerous, and if that had been anyone other than Kari they would have been hurt pretty badly so don't try this at home. _

Kari glared at her. "Don't try it here! Who are you even talking too?"

Haraki watched them. "So now it's Ruka…They just keep showing up don't they?" She looked at Haruka. "Shouldn't you be in school?" She asked.

Haruka stood up "Yeah…well, I actually left on Sunday with the intention of coming here, but I was swept away into the heart of the dark, urban wilderness and it took me three days to find my way out."

Haraki looked at her. "Why can't you just say you got lost?" She asked.

Kari wiped her forehead. "Her sense of direction's as crappy as ever."

Taji looked at Haruka. "Well if you're gonna get lost, I guess that's an impressive way to do it." "Oh yeah?" Kari said. "Well it means she hasn't had a bath in three days…Gross!"

Then, Taji looked at the students coming down the road "Hey, don't you think we should get off the road?"

"That would be wise…" Haraki said, then, she turned to Haruka. "Oh, this is Haruka; she's still in her third year of middle school, one year behind us. Ruka this is Mr. Taji Hadako."

Haruka bowed to him. "Well then, Mr. Taji Hadako…it's a pleasure to meet you."

Taji bowed as well. "No, the pleasures all mine." He stated. Then he looked her over. _'She's so polite. She seems like she's a lot more grown-up than you'd expect from someone in middle school.'_

A couple minutes later everyone stood under the bridge. "So what did you come here for anyway?" Kari asked Haruka.

"To fight," Haruka said simply. "I was planning to challenge you at the New Year's banquet, but you decided to skip…So I've come to you." She grabbed Kari's shirt. "So let's do it."

"Hold on a minute!" Kari said. "I'm right in the middle of something here in case you haven't noticed!"

"I've already wasted three days looking for you." Haruka told her.

"That's you own damn fault! You're the one who got lost!"

Taji watched them. _'Uh…I think the conversation just took a turn for the worst…' _He thought. "This could get ugly." Haraki said. "Hey Kari…maybe you should do what she says before…" "No! I said no and I mean no! So get out of here! I'm busy" Kari tried to turn, by Haruka hit her in the back of the head.

"You make me sick…You and your pathetic girly whining…" Haruka stated with a dark tone. "Too late." Haraki said.

Haruka looked up. "You're not a woman! You're a little kitty-cat who's scared to fight! You know what? You can go to hell!"

Kari kicked her. "You little punk! What's your problem? What did I ever do to you?!"

"That idiot. She just had to go and bring out Black Ruka," Haraki stated.

Taji looked at her. "Black?"

Haraki continued. "Ruka's pretty easy to get along with, but once she snaps she's uncontrollable. That's our nickname for her when she's like this 'Black Ruka.'"

"So you're saying she's got the same temper as Yuta?" Taji asked.

"No." Haraki said as Haruka put her hands on the wall and stood over her. "I'm saying she's a thousand times worse."

"Haraki comfortable? Enjoying the show, I hope so because I'm coming for you next!" "Really?"

Haruka got off of Haraki and turned to Kari. "Get up Kari!"

"I've been up where the hell were you?" Kari asked.

"I'm right here. C'mon Fight!"

"You know this could go on for hours, you don't have to stay," Haraki told Taji.

Taji ignored her and watched them.

"'Go away?' 'Leave me alone?'" When did you become such a pansy huh?" Haruka asked.

"You know when you go black you're a real bitch!" Kari told her.

"Oh yeah? Just for that when I'm down with you I'm gonna take your boyfriend."

"What the? You're gonna what?"

"Oh you know I'm gonna do this, and a little of that, and I'm definitely gonna do that!" Kari stopped and thought. _'What the…? What is she…? This is the same little brat who used to get lost on the way to the bathroom if I didn't take her. And now she thinks she's some kinda... I don't know what. She really is a bitch when she goes black who got her all worked up anyway? Oh wait that was me. So why's she gotta bring Taji into this? What's he got to do with anything? And what's she talkin' about, all this 'I'll do this, I'll do that' Crap? Whatever it is…'_ She pushed Haruka back "You're sick!" She said. "And if it's a fight you want you got it! Just bring it on!"

"That's more like it coward! It's about time you came around!" Haruka told her.

"Mr. Hadako," Haraki said. "This really will take awhile you should head back." She coughed. "Aren't you gonna stop them?" Taji asked, he looked at Haraki.

Meanwhile, on the running path, Hiroki sat with a book, and two girls ran by. "Hey Hiroki maybe you should try running huh?" One said.

"No." Hiroki told them.

Under the bridge the two Sohma girls continued fighting. "Come on, what's the matter!? Hit me!" Haruka said.

"What fight are you watching? You haven't landed a single punch yet! You hit me!" Kari told her.

"You got it!"

"Uh hey..." Taji started, but Haraki interrupted.

"Let's leave them alone, Mr. Hadako, it's best to let them fight it out, it's what they want…besides I don't know about you but I wouldn't wanna be the one to stand in between them, it's a little risky."

Taji looked at Haraki, then the girls. _'Wow, I can't believe this is the same Haruka I met a few minutes ago she seemed so nice, and now this.'_

Haruka threw off her coat, revealing a long sleeved black shirt. "You pansy! What kind of punch is that?! I didn't even feel it!"

'_It just doesn't seem possible that a person can snap and change this much, then again I'm under the impression the Sohmas probably have a lot of people like this in their family.'_ Taji thought. Kari landed a punch on Haruka that sent her to the ground. "Don't get cocky you brat! Compared to Haraki you move like a turtle!"

"Heh! So what does that make you? I mean you still can't beat Haraki yourself, now can you, loser! And you did all that extra training too. You're even worse than a turtle! You're a snail! An amoeba!"

"I am seriously gonna murder you!" Kari snapped as she threw another punch at her.

Taji looked at them with wide eyes.

"She's not serious," Haraki told him.

"Hey, you know, I've never seen Kari fight like this…"

"Yes, well, against Ruka Kari does seem a lot stronger, but if you ask me, they're both a couple of fighting idiots. They've been studying martial arts since they were…" Haraki coughed. "Since they were…" She couldn't finish, she fell to her knees, coughing.

"Haraki? Haraki?!"

Kari and Haruka stopped and Haruka kneeled in front of Haraki. "Is it an asthma attack?"

'_Her bronchial tubes…'_ Taji thought, he remembered what Himeko said.

"And you have a fever too, don't you?" Haruka noted, she sounded like a mother. "You know you're not supposed to overdo it when you're sick." She put her coat over Haraki. "Just lie here for now." She got up and faced to Kari. "Go call the main house, and hurry!" Haraki grabbed Haruka's ankle and she looked down.

"Haraki!" Taji said, and then he kneeled down. _'This is bad,' _he thought. _'This is really bad. She can hardly breathe. I knew she should have stayed home.' _

"You don't want the main house do you?" Haruka asked, then, faced Kari. "Hey Kari, you don't mind if we finish our fight later do you?"

"Uh, uh" Kari told her.

"We need to get her back to Seiya's somehow…" Haruka pondered.

"Damn...I guess this means the endurance run is over too…That bites I was winning" Kari said to no one in particular.

Haruka ignored her. "I'd say we could take a taxi, but I don't know, it'd be a real pain if she transformed in the back seat."

Taji stood up. "But we have to do something! I'll do anything!"

"Okay, maybe you can help…" Haruka grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

"What the…?" Taji said after he pulled away, the looked to find a cow in Haruka's place. "Hold on to the back of my neck so I don't change back. It'll be easier on Haraki if we carry her like this."

As that went on Hiroki sat with the two girls, they were playing cards… "That's it, it was a good run, but at last it has come to an end…you dealt me the ace. I have a royal flush." He held up a card.

"Again?" One of the girls said.

"How do you always get all the good cards?" The other asked.

The coach came up to them. "You guys… if you're not going to run, go home."

Meanwhile the girls and Taji had arrived at Seiya's. "So you came all the way here looking like that did you?" Seiya giggled.

"It's not funny." Kari snapped.

They then took Haraki up to her room and put her to bed. "There. We'll let her sleep for a while. Looks like it was just a mild attack, and she still has a slight fever, but she'll be all right." "Thank goodness." Taji said.

Seiya faced him. "Sorry for the scare Taji, but it's okay, you can go back to school if you want." Taji shook his head. "No, school is important, but I wouldn't feel right going back, when I know Haraki's sick, I'm sure my mother will understand if I miss a day. Besides I do feel a tiny bit responsible, I should have told her to stay home. Her cold might not have gotten so bad."

Seiya gave him a gentle smile and stood up. "I'll tell you what, I'll go to the school and get your things for you."

"You sure it won't be any trouble?" Taji asked.

"It's no trouble at all. In the meantime, Kari, why don't you call Himeko?"

Kari looked at her. "Huh? Why do I gotta do it?"

Seiya ignored her comment. "Watch yourself though; Hime's a bit overworked these days, so she's probably not in the best of moods. From what I hear practically the entire family has come down with the flu."

Then, Haruka changed back. "I'll call her." She offered. "Where's the phone again?"

"Damn it put some clothes on first!" Kari told her.

Seiya headed out of the room. "Well I'm off, take care of Haraki while I'm gone."

"Thanks!" Taji said. _'It's really nice of her to do this for me; Seiya can be so selfless sometimes. She's always thinking about others.'_ Taji thought as he watched her walk.

Meanwhile, Haruka was on the phone with Kari sitting next to her. "Mm-Hm. I understand, right." She hung up.

"So, what's Himeko got to say?" Kari asked.

Haruka turned to her. "She sounded mad at me for some reason. Strange huh?"

"That's what happens when you disappear for three days." Kari informed her, then, she started to stand up. "So what now? I guess we got that damn rat taken care of, you ready to finish our fight?"

"Nah, forget it." Haruka told her. "You really have gotten stronger Kari… I think I need more training."

"Hold it right there!" Kari pulled Haruka into a headlock. "So you think you can pick a fight then just walk away whenever you feel like it Huh?! Just because you changed back to 'White Ruka' doesn't mean you get…"

Taji stepped in. "So you're not Black Ruka anymore?"

"Uh…no." Haruka said.

"Hmm, you know you seem like a completely different person."

Haruka ignored him. "How's Haraki?" She asked.

"She's still sleeping."

"Don't attack her while she's passed out Kari."

"Shut up!" Kari snapped. "What good does it do me if I beat her with a cheap trick like that?! The day I knock that damn rat on her tail it's gonna be fair and square! Hell with it! I'm going back to school!" Kari left.

After she left Haruka stood with Taji in the kitchen, Taji was busy getting some ice to bring down Haraki's fever. "Haraki and Kari, do they still get in fist fights every day?" She asked.

"No, but they argue just about every time they see each other."

"Huh. Well that means they're getting along a little better, at least. It wasn't long ago that idea would've seemed pretty hopeless."

"Hopeless?" Taji asked.

"That's how it seemed, but I can tell they've both changed since then. There used to be so much tension between them, if they were in the same room you could feel it in the air, things seem so much more relaxed now." She turned and looked at Taji. "It could be because you're here." "Really? I never thought I made that much of a difference."

"Well, I can't prove that yet, but I haven't been around enough to see what's going on. Though, I guess the reason isn't really important. I'm just glad to see they're doing better, especially Haraki, she is one of my best friends after all. Nothing against Kari. Haraki's just special to me, though when we were kids I couldn't stand her. I hated her guts."

"Why?" Taji asked.

"Because she's the rat. I mean in the old story the rat rode on the cow's back to the zodiac banquet. I used to hate that story when I was a little kid, the cow…the cow was a stupid fool, letting the rat use her like that. At least that's what the adults used to tell me. I know they were probably half-joking when they said it, though, I couldn't help but feel I was the one they were laughing at, calling stupid. And after hearing it over and over I had so much anger toward that rat bottled up inside that I couldn't contain it. I started losing my temper over the simplest things. I guess that's when my "black" personality first began to appear. It got to be too much for my parents to handle, so they had me take martial arts lessons, hoping it would give me a way to vent but it really didn't help like they thought it would. I enjoyed the training itself, but even there, it still felt like I was getting laughed at a lot. And then one day, I bumped into Haraki. The truth is up until then I had never even said a word to her, the only time we saw each other was at New Year's, but that day, seeing her sitting there all of my anger began to swell up at once I exploded."

-Flashback-

A young Haruka, in a karate uniform is looking at a young Haraki, who is sitting in the garden in a navy blue sailor-suit uniform. Haruka stepped forward. "I hate your guts! It's the rat's fault everyone laughs at the cow! It's the rat's fault they call the cow a fool and an idiot! It's your fault the dirty, mean stinking Rat!" She stopped and panted.

Haraki turned and looked at her. "Well is it true? About you, I mean. Is it? Is that what you are? Are you a fool?"

Haruka had faint tears in her eyes. "No…no, I'm not…I…I am not a fool…I'm not!"

"Mm-Hmm" Haraki nodded. "I didn't think so." She smiled at Haruka.

-End flashback-

"After that I began to lose my temper less and less. Haraki had finally allowed me to vent the anger that had filled me for up for so long. It felt like my heart had suddenly been set free. I was completely surprised. In every possible way Haraki was different from the person I'd imagined her to be. It's true, until that point it had never occurred to me that she could be anymore than the "Mean Rat." And to think…if I hadn't met her that day, the "Mean Rat" is probably all I'd see, even now. Then I'd really be a fool."

Taji looked at her. "That's a wonderful story," he said.

Haruka looked up at him "And you know, I was surprised today too. I mean seeing Haraki with that little smile on her face, was a first for me. She never smiled like that when she lived at the main house, she was always lonely. That's why I was thinking…maybe your influence helped her to soften up a bit."

"Really?" Taji asked. "Because I don't know what I could have done, that's enough to…"

"I'll prove it to you." Haruka said, and then she whispered something in Taji's ear. "When she wakes up…"

It was then that Haraki woke up. "Mr. Hadako?" she asked while rubbing her eye.

"Hey, welcome back," Taji said.

Then Haraki sat up. "That's right I was…" She turned to Taji. "I hope I wasn't any trouble." "It's okay" Taji said.

"But tell me, how did I get here?"

"Haruka transformed and carried you on her back."

"Well Thanks, though it must have been a sight."

"No I didn't mind," Haruka told Haraki. "You were asleep by the time we got home, so I told Taji about why I like you."

"Is that the only think you could think to talk about?" Haraki asked.

"I at least hope you didn't bore him with too many details."

"He seemed interested actually."

"It's all right…" Taji started. "It was a nice story…uh… 'Princess' Haraki."

"Well don't pay any attention to Ruka she…" Haraki stopped, she realized what Taji just said and transformed.

-Quick Flashback-

"When she wakes up try calling her by her nickname once…I'll bet it cheers her up." Haruka whispered into Taji's ear.

-End Quick Flashback-

Taji looked at Haruka "See? it doesn't work when I say it!"

_Taji: So despite a few bumps along the way, everyone managed to survive the endurance run…unfortunately by the end of the evening a few more of them had come down with colds. _

The next day Taji sat with Haruka, looking at Seiya and Kari, who were sleeping. Himeko stood off to the side and Haruka looked down at them "See? That's what happens when you sit out in the freezing air for hours playing Old Maid…"


	12. Episode 11 A Twist on Tradition

Episode 11-A twist on tradition

"What in the hell?" Ryou said as he opened Haraki's locker at school. Inside there was a single chocolate.

"There's only one," Hiroki noted.

"Yeah. Weird huh? I figured the Princess' locker would'a been the best place to try." Ryou stated.

"Um, try for what exactly?" Haraki asked.

Ryou turned to look at her. "You know, it's always in the cartoons. That thing where you open the door and all the stuff comes pouring out?"

'_So why does he think something like that would happen here?'_ Haraki thought.

"I see now…cuckoo chicks, or in this case guys. The guys who visited this locker are like cuckoo chicks." Hiroki said.

"Cuckoo?" Haraki, Ryou, and Taji said in unison.

"You see, just like the cuckoo chick pushes another bird's egg out of the nest, these tradition breaking boys threw out any chocolates that were already here, so that theirs would be more noticeable. The proof… is in the trash can." Hiroki pointed to the trash can, which was, indeed, filled to the brim with chocolates.

"It's full of chocolates." Taji observed.

"Damn it. They messed up my locker trick," Ryou said.

"And I am the hawk who comes to capture the chocolates pushed from the nest" Hiroki said, he held and began unwrapping a package.

"All right, go Hiroki…" Ryou said a bit sarcastically.

"Aren't those Haraki's?" Taji asked.

"It's fine." Haraki said. She wasn't going to eat it anyway.

'_Well I can already tell…it's going to be an interesting Valentine's Day.'_ Taji thought.

Later, they met Kari in the hall. "Hey," Ryou told her.

"Hey…" She said back, then looked at Haraki. They stared at each other for a minute before Kari punched the wall and walked off.

"Kari?" Taji said.

"That girl's just been itching for a fight all morning…" Ryou said.

Later, in the classroom Haraki's fan-boys stood with chocolates, they didn't care about tradition either. Taji and his friends just watched them. "Damn those fan boys look scary today. They're either about to mug her or eat her, I can't tell." Ryou stated.

'_Hmm…'_ Taji thought. _'Valentine's must be stressful for Zodiac members, what with so many people offering presents._' Then he remembered something. "Oh these are for you," he handed Hiroki and Ryou some chocolates, Taji himself wasn't one for keeping up with tradition either. "Hey, I still owe you from last year." Ryou said.

"Thank you very much." Hiroki said. "What would you like in return?"

"Nothing," Taji said. "I just wanted to thank you for always being there for me."

"Uh Kari?" Another boy said. The others turned to see a boy standing next to Kari. "I figured since you wouldn't give any out…I got you some chocolate."

"Hmm, looks like Kari has an admirer" Taji said.

"Well who would'a thought, Kari's a pretty-girl." Ryou said.

Kari stared at the boy. "Wait a second…is today Valentine's day?" She stood up. "I'm going home."

"Huh?" the boy said, he looked at bit hurt.

"No wait… home is dangerous too…" She said. The others watched her as she thought. _'A journey! Yeah…I'll just go someplace far way where no one can find me!'_ She tore out of the classroom and went outside, only to find Yuta leaning against the gate.

"Kari," he nodded.

Then he smiled slyly and she turned away and ran, he ran after her. "Aw hell! He's here!" Kari said.

Taji and Haraki watched form the classroom window. "I get the feeling that she's not happy to see Yuta."

"She's not." Haraki stated.

Later at home, Yuta told them why he was there. "I'm here for Valentine's" He stated.

"You're an idiot." Kari said.

"Kari, please behave." Seiya said. "I'd rather not have my house smashed."

"Damn it!" Kari ignored Seiya. "I should have left on the journey sooner! How was I supposed to know today was Valentine's Day?"

"It's called a 'calendar.'" Haraki said.

Seiya turned to Yuta. "Why are you here? You know she's not gonna give you a thing right?" she asked.

"I know, so I got her some chocolate, but she won't take them. Watch." He held out a small bag "Here, Kari I got you a small present."

Kari stood up. "Keep it! Who in their right mind would eat that sugary crap?!"

"So you don't like chocolate?" Taji asked.

"No I hate it!" Kari said.

Yuta stood up and got in her face. "Shut up and eat it! I spent good money on this so… eat damn you!"

"No means no, Idiot!" Kari said.

"Eat!"

"No!"

"Eat!"

"Never!"

"EAT IT!"

"You'll have to kill me first!"

"That can be arranged!"

Seiya ignored them and turned to Taji, who, held a bag behind his back. "Taji, I don't suppose you have chocolates behind your back?" She asked.

Taji nodded. "Yes, I did go and buy some, but I should have asked first." He said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Mr. Hadako," Haraki said. "I'd love some chocolate." She smiled at him.

"Okay," he nodded. "This is yours." He handed her a small blue box.

"Thank you." She said.

"And this is Seiya's," he handed her a purple one, he seemed to have caught on that Purple was sort of like Seiya's signature color, not to mention, her favorite color.

"Thanks." Seiya said.

"I know it's not much, but it's thanks for everything you've given me." Taji told her.

"Still, I do appreciate it" Seiya told him.

"Oh and Yuta, I have one for you as well." Taji said as he turned to him.

"Really? Thank you." Yuta said.

Taji then sat three more boxes on the table. "And I have some for Himeko, Haruka, and Michi. I didn't know if I'd see them, but I hope there's a way I can give these to them."

"So you thought of everyone?" Haraki asked.

"Well, they looked nice, and the wrapping gave me something to do…I guess I went overboard, and I probably should of checked to see if they liked chocolate."

"Oh, don't let Kari bother you." Seiya told him, she waved her hand. "You see, she thinks she's being tough but really she doesn't have a clue to what true toughness is. A real tough-girl would have eaten the chocolate without all this fuss. To refuse a gift, and trample on someone's heart…It falls short of being a human, let alone tough."

"It's okay," Taji said. "I should have thought to get something else, like crackers or rice balls, something that she'd like."

"Hmm… those sound delicious too." Seiya said, she smiled at him.

"So I just have to eat it?" Kari said. She stood up and took Yuta's chocolate; she unwrapped it and shoved it in her mouth.

"It's about time!" Yuta said.

"Okay…" Taji said. Kari held her hand out to him and he smiled gently and handed her the chocolate. "Here."

Later, Kari and Yuta stood outside. "I guess I'll be seeing you." Yuta said.

"Good," Kari told him.

Yuta smiled. "You know, Ruka told me that you and Haraki are sort of getting along now. She thinks that if you two keep getting to know each other, you might even become friends one day. Surprisingly, I'd be happy if that came true. See ya!" He left.

Later in the afternoon Seiya made her way up to Himeko's place. "Hime! I got you some Valentine's chocolates!" She said in a joking manner.

Himeko slammed the door in her face.

Seiya opened it again. "Oh, come on… can't you take a joke? They're from Taji, let me in." "Idiot…" Himeko mumbled.

_Taji: So just like that, Valentine's Day came and went in the blink of an eye, as did the whole month, and before I knew it we had finished our final exams! Studying for a test is always tough, but I love the feeling I get when the hard work pays off._

Taji stretched and Haraki came up to him. "Mr. Hadako? How'd it go?" She asked.

"It went well," Taji said. "I knew a lot more of the answers than I thought."

"Great job!" Ryou congratulated him.

"See Taji, I knew you'd do well if you tried." Hiroki praised.

"Well I did have Haraki to help me, she always took the time to explain things clearly, even though she had her own work to do." He nodded toward Haraki. "Really, thank you, I don't think I could have done it without your help."

Haraki smiled gently. "I don't know about that."

The fan boys watched her. "Princess Haraki never smiles like that! What is she talking about?!" Kakeru thought.

Hiroki turned to glare at them.

"But with him over there, I'm a little scared to approach her!" Hiroki continued to glare as two boys walked up to him. "Hey Hiroki, I'll bet you did well on the test, huh?" One said.

"Really?" Hiroki asked.

"Yeah, I mean you're pretty smart, and you do have these powers, seems like it'd be easy for you. You did ace the midterms right?"

"I suppose, but since then I've had to take remedial lessons, they even called my parents, my mother cried for days." Hiroki said.

"But, I thought, that with your special powers and all…" The first boy said.

"I'd be able to guess all of the answers?" Hiroki finished. "It seems I'm dumber than my "powers" can make up for."

"Don't get too down on yourself." Ryou told him. "I'm sure there's an even bigger dummy around here somewhere…" He glanced at Kari.

"Hey! You sure as hell better not be talkin' about me!" Kari said.

"What? Who else would I be talking about?"

Kari sat up straight. "Oh yeah? Well no one's ever had to call my parents to tell em' my grades sucked!"

"Aww does Kari study like a good little girl?" One of the boys asked.

"Shut up!" Kari told him.

"Please, you couldn't study to save your life!" Ryou told her.

"You are so full of it!" Kari snapped.

"Uh huh…let me guess, you're the kind of girl who crams at the last minute, then you get to school and freak out 'cause you studied for the wrong test!" Ryou said.

"Okay that does it!" Kari mumbled.

Taji turned to Haraki. "You know, lately, when she's been shutting herself up in her room, it seems like she really has been studying hard."

"So it would seem," Haraki said.

'_It's nice when I think about it, how she looked so peaceful, working quietly at her desk. Though, when it comes down to it, Kari's the kind of person who needs a little bit more excitement in her day.' _

As he thought, one of the teachers came in the room. "Ah…Mr. Hadako…A word please?" She said.

"Yes Ma'am." he said, he followed her into the hall.

When he came back in Haraki looked at him. "Something wrong?" She asked.

"No, I just have work harder at my job." Taji said.

Later that night, at his job, he ran back and forth with a mop, he was working faster and harder than usual. "Well, it's nice to have you back." One of the other men said. "So you're done with exams?"

Taji nodded. "Yes, and starting today I'd like to work harder than ever!" he said.

Later, when he walked home, the door opened before he could get it, Michiru was the one who opened it. "Taji you're home!" She said.

"Michi?" He asked.

"I just got here too!" She grabbed Taji's hand.

"Come on! Let's go in! This way! This way!"

"Where does that girl get all her energy?" Seiya asked to no one in particular while Michiru dragged Taji into the living room.

"This is my first time to Seiya's house! Exciting huh?"

"Hey I'm home," Taji told Haraki once they entered the living room.

"Great the annoying little brat's here…" Kari said as she came into the living room while brushing her hair, she had a towel over her shoulders.

"Ah! Someone just got out of the bath! Kari!" Michiru said.

Kari dropped her brush went over. "I swear it bugs me every time you open your mouth!"

"Kari knock it off!" Michiru told her.

"Hey Michi?" Taji said. "I made you a snack, if you're hungry."

Michiru turned to him and smiled. "I am! Thanks!"

"I have one word for you! Decalf!" Kari said, she started messing with her again.

"Kari!" Michiru said.

A bit later, when everything had calmed down, Seiya turned to Michiru. "Michi? Have you told us to what we owe the pleasure of your company this evening?"

Michiru shook her head. "No. I'm here because I have a question for Taji!" She said.

"Yes?" Taji asked.

"Okay, tell me, do you know what tomorrow is?"

Taji thought. "Tomorrow is March 14th right?"

Michiru nodded. "Yep, and that means it's white day! So tomorrow I'm breaking tradition and giving _you _a present a hot spring trip!"

"Huh?" Taji looked at her.

"I call it Ta-chi's Relaxing Hot Spring Vacation!"

"You named it?" Seiya asked.

"A hot spring? Which one?" Haraki asked.

"Oh, that place the Sohmas run." Michiru informed her.

"I see." Haraki nodded.

"I don't know, I mean doesn't it sound like a bit much?" Taji asked.

"Uh Taji, if you ask me it's about moderate, it's not like she's taking you to Italy or something. And you know it would be a shame to turn it down, you should go, you need a break." Seiya told him.

"Sorry, I thought you'd be happy to go…" Michiru said.

"It's okay; I am happy, thanks a lot."

"Oh and Haraki and Kari are coming too!"

Kari, who had been standing off to the side, gripped her brush and stood over Michiru, she glared at her. "Why don't you try asking before you start making plans for everyone?!"

"Come on!" Michiru whined.

"Forget it! And whining is not gonna change my mind!" Kari snapped.

Michiru turned to Haraki. "Hey Haraki you'll come right?"

Haraki turned to face Michiru. "Of course, I wouldn't miss it."

"Good!"

"Okay now I really don't want to go…" Kari said.

"Why, I mean you don't have to worry about money, I've been saving up my allowance." "That's not the problem." Kari told her.

Seiya then realized something. "Oh, and speaking of money, Taji I hear you still haven't paid last month's dues toward your class trip. I got a call from your grandfather. Apparently someone from the school called him, he said he'd pay for you if you needed."

"No it's okay, you see last month there was just a lot going on, but I'll be able to catch up with the money I earn from my job, and I already spoke to the teacher in charge so it's all right." Taji explained.

"But, Taji…you did work a pretty fair amount last month…so how is it…" Seiya stopped.

'_He bought all of that valentine's chocolate…'_ All three girls thought at once.

"So you're going on a trip?" Michi asked.

"I don't know," Taji shrugged.

"What!" Kari said.

"Yes…?" Taji said, Kari was freaking him out.

She calmed down. "Water…hot bath…you go" she said. Taji looked at her and left.

"Impressive," Seiya said after Taji left. "You're learning self control. But at any rate chocolate doesn't exactly fall from the sky. Taji had so have paid for it out of his own pocket."

"So how come we didn't realize that at the time?" Haraki asked.

Kari slammed her hand down on the table. "It's because he was so damn calm about it! How could we know he was broke?! He didn't have to get that stuff for us but he did it anyway! He could have bought himself new clothes or paid for his class trip or something! Talk about stupid! I mean, what was he thinking? All he's doing is making things hard on himself."

"Hey…" Michiru started. "There's a boy in my class who reads a lot, and yesterday he brought in this book _A guide to the World's Greatest Fools. _He's always brining funny books like that, One time he brought one called _The Universe of Stew." _

"Did you have a point in that somewhere?" Haraki asked.

"Oh yeah, you see, a bunch of us sat down and read this book together, and I remember there was this one story…_The Most Foolish Traveler in the World._ You see, once upon a time there was this foolish traveler who had gone on a journey. Why was he foolish? Well, because he was fooled by everyone he met! Everywhere he went, people made up all kinds of sad stories to tell him, and the traveler fell for every one of them. Soon his money, clothes, and even his shoes had been cheated away from him. But the foolish traveler was always glad to help. And he always told people the same thing, He said: "I wish you happiness." But, at this point the traveler was completely naked, and with nothing left to cover himself, he decided to leave the main road and travel through the dense forest where no one could see him. But soon he discovered that goblins lived in the woods. The goblins wanted to eat the traveler's body, so they begged, and pleaded, and they used kind words and tries to trick him. Of course the traveler was fooled. First he let the goblins eat one of his legs, then an arm, then more and more. Before it was over all the traveler had left was his head. He'd even given his eyes away to the last of the goblins. And as that last goblin was eating the traveler's eyeballs he said: "Thank you, traveler. In return I leave you this present." What the goblin left was a slip of paper with the word "fool" written on it but the traveler couldn't see it. He didn't know what it was. Even so, tears began to flow down his face. "Thank you," he said. "This is the first present anyone ever given me, I'm so happy. Thank you." Even without his eyes, he cried and cried, great tears of joy. Then the traveler died with a smile still on his face. And that's…the end of the story. After the story all of the other kids in the class started making fun of the traveler. But while they did that I closed my eyes and though about it a bit longer, I thought about how he'd given everything away, until all he had left was his head, and how at the end, he still cried for joy as he said thank you… Then I realized that I felt so sorry for him…See? Loss, hardship, things like that? You can't only focus on them. The traveler didn't. He never thought about his own troubles at all…I imagine that it probably does sound really foolish to some people. But not to me, I don't think he's foolish at all. Even though other people probably thought he was being tricked, I don't think he was. I think he did exactly what he wanted to do. I think…more than anything he just wanted to make people happy. What about you, Haraki? Kari? Seiya? What do you think? Really? Is that foolish? When you close your eyes and think about it, is that what it is?"

The next morning, as a favor, Taji was outside hanging laundry, as, he didn't normally do it. Kari came up to him. "I'm going for you." She said.

"Good morning, did you get a good night…?" Taji asked.

"The hot spring, I'm going for you." She said.

"I didn't make anything, or get you anything for Valentine's day, so to make up for it I'll put up with that damn Haraki, and I'll go to the hot spring for you…Maybe you don't care either way, you know, weather I go or not…but…"

"No I do care, it's great." Taji told her, giving her a gentle smile. "It'll be better if you're there too. Thank you."

"You really are something. You know that?" Kari smiled at him.

Then, out of nowhere, Michiru, clad in a light pink nightgown grabbed Kari's arm. "Kari's got the hots this morning!" She sang.

"I do not!" Kari told her.

"She's go the hots!"

"Shut up!"

"Aww come on! Have some fun!" Michiru said.

Then, Haraki, in light purple pajama pants and a white camisole appeared in the doorway. "What's going on?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"Oh you're up just in time," Taji said. "Kari just told me that she's decided to come to the hot spring with us."

Haraki looked at him, then at Kari and Michiru. Kari was messing with Michi again. "

Well…I suppose we'll survive. Haraki said.

_Taji: Well this will be interesting. All of us together on a Relaxing Hot Spring Vacation. I know it'll be great. _


	13. Episode 12 White Day

Episode 12-White Day

**A/N: **Sorry about the LONG update time, I needed to watch Fruits Basket again and I was working on other things, so sorry! Point is, I updated, right? I still have others to do though! I at least want to get Ep. 14 of this series done!

_Taji: Hey, it's me Taji. If you remember, last month for Valentine's Day I saved up to buy chocolate for all my friends. It wasn't much, but I wanted to give them something to say "Thank you" for everything's they've done for me, and they seemed to appreciate it. So yesterday, I really wasn't expecting Michiru to give me a White Day present…especially not an all-expenses paid trip to a hot spring, but she did and here were are now, on our Relaxing Hot Spring Vacation. _

"Hey Taji, look! A mountain!" Michiru pointed out. Currently, they were on a bus, on their way to the hot spring.

"I see." Taji said.

"And a river!"

"Uh-huh."

"And a field!"

"Uh-huh."

"And look, it's a really beautiful day too, huh?" Michiru looked at him.

"I guess it did…" Taji said.

Michiru then bounced over from her seat to Haraki and Kari's. "Right Haraki? Right Kari?" she said.

"I guess…" Both girls said in flat tones. They looked at each other for a minute and turned away.

"So, why are you so quiet? You're not sad that you came, are you?"

"Oh, I hope not," Taji said. "I mean, you did come to keep me company, and I thank you for that, but…I hope you weren't planning something important…"

"Ah, forget about it." Kari said. "I only came because there wasn't anything better to do at home."

"Uh…okay?" Taji didn't know how to respond.

Haraki turned to Taji. "And I haven't been to the hot in a long time, I was happy to come."

"Oh, I know." Michiru started. "You're just thinking of how nice it's going to be when we get there."

"Mm-hm." Haraki nodded.

"All right the, when we get there we're all going to try and have as much fun as we can! Right Taji?"

Taji nodded. "Uh-huh, I'm sure it won't be that hard to…" Taji told her. "I mean, it's already great and I never imagine that giving out Valentine's would mean that I'd be going on vacation to a hot spring. And that I get to ride there in a private charter bus, it's almost like…"

"A prince in a fairy tale!" Michiru interrupted. "Ah! I know! Taji can be the prince and I'll be his Princess!"

"Ah, give me a break." Kair said, Michiru was getting to be ridiculous. "It's just a hot spring; it's nothing to get all worked up about."

"Uh, I think it's just ahead." Haraki told them as they rode closer to the spring, and when they arrived Taji was surprised…it was so big…

"I's beautiful." He said. "I like it."

"Well then, come on Prince Taji, your room awaits!"

"Thank you Michiru." He nodded toward her. "It's really wonderful and I guess I feel like a Prince." He added the last part mostly for Michiru.

"That's right!" She said. "You're the Prince and I'm your Mistress!"

"You are nowhere near a Mistress!" Kari snapped.

It was then that the bus driver spoke up. "Well, I'll be back to pick you up tomorrow." He said.

"Thank you! Bye!" Michiru waved as the bus left and the group stood there for a minute before the door to the building suddenly opened and a woman came out.

"Oh…thank goodness, I'm so glad you're here…" She had a weird, worried expression on her face and she startled Taji.

"Oh, don't worry." Michiru said. "She's the hot spring lady."

"The word is Hostess…" The woman muttered.

"Uh…are you okay?" Taji asked. "Is everything all right?"

Then, the woman suddenly reached up and grabbed Taji. "Please! Let me show you to your room!"

"Uh…" Taji said.

A little while later, the group walked down a small hallway with the hostess.

"Oh, you know what?" Michiru said. "The hostess, she's a Sohma too, but she gets sick a lot, so she stays here for the health benefits. The Sohmas own this place you know."

"Really?" Taji said.

The Hostess then stopped and turned to them. "I apologize for startling you earlier."

"Oh it's okay." Taji said. "What's important is that you're feeling all right."

"You are to kind to an old woman like me, but thank you." The hostess said. "I'm surprised Young Mistress Seiya didn't accompany you today. Working I guess."

"'Young Mistress Seiya'? How old are you?!" Kari asked.

"Yes, she has a deadline for two chapters coming up." Haraki explained.  
"Well, that's a shame; you are the only guest we have today. It would have been a nice chance to visit with her."

"Hm." Taji looked at her. _'So, if she's a Sohma and if she already knows Seiya and Haraki and everyone…does that mean, she knows about the Zodiac curse? Or maybe she's a Zodiac member herself…'_

They kept walking until they came to a door, the hostess opened it. "Ah, here we are. This will be your room." She said.

"Wow…It's so big!" Michiru walked in and looked around.

"Yes, I made sure we had our best room prepared for your arrival."

"Hey Taji! You've got to look at the garden." Michiru said.

Taji went over. "Wow, it's so beautiful and it looks like it goes on forever."

"Almost, you see, form that forest over there all the way to the mountain, that's all Sohma property."

"Really? It all belongs to your family?"

Michiru nodded. "Yup."

"Well then, why don't we go for a walk?"

"You wouldn't be the first to think so, but we've actually had a few guest go walking who never made it back." The hostess said.

"Huh?" Taji tilted his head.

"Taji it's a joke." Michiru said.

"Oh…"

"And don't worry! They never lose guest for too long, they have a professional search party on call at all times."

"They have to send out search parties?" Taji said. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"Taji, that was a joke too…" Michiru trailed off, he was being too serious.

He said nothing more, and the Hostess changed the subject. "Oh, Mr. Taji, I've prepared a room for you adjacent to the young Mistress' here."

"Okay." Taji nodded.

"Hey! I hope you don't think I'm staying in the same room as that damn Haraki!" Kari snapped.

"You two get along as poorly as ever I see…" The hostess said. "But don't worry, there are sliding doors to divide the room."

"That's not the point!" Kari snapped. "The point is I didn't come here to…"

"The point is you just want to stay in the same room as Taji, don't you?" Michiru teased.

"Hey! I didn't say that so shut up Michiru! You and your damn mouth!"

"Mistress Kari…" The hostess said in a low, dark voice. Then she grabbed Kari by the shirt. "You should be ashamed of yourself! You think you would even suggest the idea of sharing a room with a young man! And even if you are a cat I thought you to be a decent you woman! Since when have you gotten such lecherous ideas into your head?!"

"Hey! Hold on a minute!" Kari said.

"I'm sorry world! I must apologize on behalf of this dirty minded girl!"

"All right I'll stay in the room with Haraki!"

"Pervert! Kari's a pervert!" Michiru teased.

"I think she's stronger than she let's on…" Haraki said, she was talking about the hostess.

After a couple minutes the hostess stopped and left. "All right then…I'll leave you to enjoy yourselves." She said.

"Finally, it's quiet." Kari sat done in one of the wicker chairs in the room.

"Hey! There's still time before dinner! Let's take a bath, okay Taji?" Michiru said as she put a cloth on her head.

"All right." Taji said.

"Let's take it together!"

"Uh…"

Haraki and Kari had solemn looks and Kari held Michiru to the ground by her head. "You little…Who's the pervert now?!"

Hey! What did I do?" Michiru whined.

"Well, it might be okay, I mean Michi's so little and all…"

"Little? What the hell are you talking about?!" Kari couldn't see how, well actually she could, Michiru did look like she was about ten-years-old.

Meanwhile, Haraki looked at a small package that she had bought. "Mr. Had…"

She was interrupted be Michiru.

"Oh come on! Let me go!"

Haraki sighed and went over, she made Michiru face her. "Michi, why don't we give Mr. Hadako some time to himself? After all, the reason we brought him here was to let him relax, right?"

"Right." Michiru nodded. "I get it…" she turned to Taji. "But we'll sleep together tonight! Okay?"

'_She doesn't get it…' _Haraki and Kari thought.

A couple minutes later, in one part of the spring Michiru jumped right in with Haraki and Kari watching, they were all wrapped in bath towels. Michiru had put her long, blonde hair tied up in two pigtails with light blue ribbons, to keep it out of her face and out of the spring, though her long bang remained down. Kari had hers pulled into a side ponytail with a clear band, though two strand of her hair were left down, and wit it's length putting it up didn't help much. And Haraki? Haraki's hair was only shoulder length anyway so she left it down.

"How nice…" Taji said from his side. "My first open-air bath and this spring looks big enough for someone like Michiru to swim in."

"She is swimming." Kari said as she watched Michiru paddle back and forth.

Taji sighed and rummaged through his stuff until he found his picture of his mother. "There we go…" He held it as he sat, he had wrapped it in plastic, and he wanted his mother there...in spirit. He just sighed a content sight.

Meanwhile. Michiru had found a rock and jumped off of it, laughing as she did so. And splashing the water high up, making the time she and Kari spent putting their hair up pointless.

"I'm doing that again!" Michiru said.

Kari grabbed her. "Oh no you're not! Just get in and be quiet!" She pulled her back and made her sit, but it didn't quite work, Michiru stood up again and went to the wall.

"Hey Taji, how are you doing?" She asked.

"You little brat! Didn't I tell you to be quiet?!" Kari grabbed her again and put her in a head lock.

"Oh come on! Taji's by himself! He's gotta be lonely…Oh I know! Let's sing a song, then it'll seem like we're together! Okay Taji?"

"A song?" Taji asked.

"Yes! Go on, you start!"

"But I don't know many songs…" Taji said.

"I'll sing then!" Michiru said, then she began to sing in a sweet voice.

"_I'm sorry I'm not honest _

_I can say that in my dreams _

_My thoughts are about to short circuit_

_I need to see you right now!_

_It makes me want to-"_

"What the hell is that?" Kari asked.

"It's an anime song, I heard it on TV!" Michiru replied.

"So why don't you sing something less annoying."

"Just sing it! You too Taji!" Then, Michiru began to sing again.

"_I'm sorry I'm not honest _

_I can say that in my dreams…"_

"Your turn!"

Taji sighed, he wondered why she'd pick such a girly song, but he sang anyway, he knew it, Seiya had a tendency to sing it at times.

"_I'm sorry I'm not honest, _

_I can say that in my dreams…"_

Michiru smiled and continued.

"_My thoughts are about to short circuit _

_I need to see you right now." _

"How can thoughts short circuit?" Haraki asked.

"Knock it off!" Kari snapped.

Taji silently sang the next verse and repeated the song.

"Knock it off already!" Kari snapped between singings.

They ignored him and continued.

"_It makes me want to cry this moonlight _

_But I can't make a call at midnight…"_

Taji repeated the first verse, unable to remember the rest and Michiru sang along with him, until Taji began to feel dizzy and fell...

When he came to the Hostess was fanning him. "Ah, Mr. Taji…I'm glad to see you've come around."

"What happened?" He asked.

"Well, you fell. It's not very often that someone faints during their bath, but our hot spring can make some people dizzy."

"I see, and where's my Mom?"

"Oh this picture?" The Hostess gave him back his picture. "It's fine, the plastic you wrapped it in kept it dry, no harm done."

"Oh, thank you, and I'm sorry if I put you through any trouble." Taji bowed and the Hostess slammed her hands on the table that he was sitting on.

"Outrageous! Never in all my years has a quest apologized to me!" She was freaking out again. "I should have told you that it was possible to get dizzy in the hot spring! Clearly I have failed in my duties as a Hostess! Please! Let me dig my grave so I can crawl in and die1 I'm sorry!" She stopped then and Taji tilted his head.

"I beg your pardon…" The hostess said.

"It's okay." Taji told her.

"So, that's a special photo?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, this is my Mother. She passed away last year and since she can't be here I thought she could enjoy the hot spring in spirit."

"Oh, that's a wonderful story…"

"Taji are you okay?" Michiru called a minute later.

"Oh, yes I'm fine." He bowed to the hostess. "And thanks for all your help."

He left and she smiled.

A little while later he sat with everyone else for dinner, the table was covered with a bunch of delicious foods.

"Oh…wow…I've never seen so much food on one table…" Taji said.

"You think we can eat all this?" Kari asked, by now she had taking the ponytail out and left her hair down.

"Oh, well I guess I better start serving the rice." Taji said, he always served at home, even though he was a boy… (How is it that not one girl in that house know how to cook right?!)

"No, you're the prince today Taji, I'll do it." Michiru offered, her hair was left up. She began piling rice in a bowl and gave it to Taji. "Here Taji."

"Thanks." Taji said.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?" Kari asked as she reached for a piece of fish.

Michiru slapped her had with the rice spoon.

"What the hell was that?!"

"No! Prince Taji gets to go first!"

"Well then, Mr. Hadako what are you going to try?"

"I don't know…" Taji mumbled.

"Go on! Don't be shy! Dig in!" Michiru said.

'_All this attention is weird, I hate being the center of it…but I guess if I have to pick something…' _Taji reached down and picked up a piece of fish and ate it. "It's delicious."

"Wonderful, I'm glad you like it Mr. Hadako." Haraki said.

"Well then eat up!" Michiru said.

At that moment, the hostess came in. "Pardon the intrusion."

They all looked at her.

"The head chef would like to pay his respect to the young Mistresses."

Then, a man came in and sat next to the hostess. "As always, it is a pleasure to serve you." He said. "Does the cuisine meet with your approval?"

"Oh, yeah, it's great." Kari said.

"It's even more delicious then I remember." Haraki said.

"Yes, a meal fit for a king." Taji said.

Right after he said it the chef lunged toward the table. "Please make way!" He said, then he put it hands around a container. "It's too cold! No! This is inexcusable! I made sure that the young Mistress' food would be served with the hot food hot and the cold foods cold! Only my complete incompetence as a chef would allow such a lukewarm dish to be served to you! ay I be cut into a thousand pieces for this horrible act!"

"No it's my fault!" The hostess said. "I waited too long to serve your meal."

It was then that the two got into a fight.

"Hey, are those two…" Taji started.

"…Related? Yes, they're cousins. It's amazing the Family resemblance." Haraki explained.

After dinner Taji stepped outside again. '_Hmm…'_ He thought. _'The steam looks so nice and it is a beautiful night…maybe I should try another bath…' _and he did, he went out to another area of the hot spring, there was a sign, he read it.

"Exclusively for guest prone to dizziness, that's nice." He put his picture down. "There, it'll be better if you're up there Mom, I don't want to get you wet again."

"So..." Said a voice.

"Hm?" Taji turned, the Hostess was sting on a rock in her robe. "I see you found the sign I posted. Good, you might find this bath a bit more to your liking. And you even brought your mother." She tuned and put her feet in the water. "And now that we have a quiet moment, I'd like to speak to you. Did you know that my child is a member of the Zodiac, like Mistress Haraki and the others? Yes, My child was born under the sign of the rooster.*"She paused. "And when I first heard you were coming to live with the Sohmas I was a bit uneasy. I thought that if you learned the secret then it might bring more suffering for my child and the other young Mistress' you see. And now I'd like to apologize for having ever thought that, having met you Mr. Taji, I'm no longer worried. I know that if you ever cross paths some day, you will be as much as a friend to my child as you are you Mistresses Haraki and Kari."

"_The bird huh?…Oh, I do hope we get to met some day.'_

Later, as she walked down the hall with Michiru she explained it more. "That's right, the hot spring lady is Rei's mother, sorry I thought I told you that already."

"Rei huh?" Taji said.

"Uh-huh, but enough about that, come play ping-pong with me, okay? Haraki and Kari never let me play with them…" Michiru said as they came into the room and Kari hit the ping pong ball hard, it hit the wall next to Haraki.

"Out again." Haraki said. "I told you, you have to let it bounce on the table."

"Shut up! That's stupid why would I want to hit that slow?!" Kari asked.

"Why? Because it's the rules, that's why." She bounced it and Kari hit it hard into the wall again.

"Out again."

"Just hang in there Kari! You can do it!" Taji encouraged.

"You know…" Haraki said, "I thought at least at ping-pong she'd have a chance to beat me, but once again, she's hopeless."

Kari flipped the table over. "How can I beat you with all these stupid rules you damn rat! How 'bout we take this outside!"

"You know, you're the one who wanted to play this game in the first place."

"In that case, if you want to…I'll play you," Taji said.

"Ooh! That sounds fun! Play him! Play him!" Michiru said.

They set the table back up and got ready. "Advance warning, I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're new at this." Kari said.

"Right." Taji nodded.

"Don't forget, it has to bounce." Haraki said.

"You shut up!" Kari snapped. She bounced and Taji missed. Horribly.

Michiru just looked at the ball.

"I missed it…" Taji said.

"I know, you kinda suck." Kari said.

"Oh Kari, don't say that!" Michiru told her.

AT that Moment, Haraki, who had been thinking, walked away.

"All right! If you think you're any better I'll play you, you little runt!" Kari said.

'All right." Michiru said and Haraki walked on.

Taji followed her outside. "Haraki? Are you okay? You seem upset."

Haraki laughed. "Funny…that was funny…Mr. Hadako that was hilarious! The way you swung and missed like that, oh, you're awful…I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's okay to laugh, I know it was horrible and you could have just laughed back there."

"Oh no, I just couldn't…if Kari ever saw me…well, I'd never live it down. I mean, I've never even laughed in front of my parents like this…it was a good laugh…" She turned back to Taji.

"I almost forgot, this is for you." She pulled a package out of her kimono sleeve. "It's a gift, I wanted to give it to you earlier but the timing wasn't right."

Taji opened it and pulled out a piece of black fabric.

"It's my White day present, also to make up for valentine's day."

Taji unfolded it, it was a scarf, he wrapped it around his neck.

"I had a hard time deciding what to get you at first, but this just seemed to fit you. I hope you like it, Prince."

"Of course I like it…thank you."

Haraki picked up one side of the scarf. "Prince…I can think of no higher honor for you." She lightly kissed the fabric.

"Huh?"

"I'm kidding." Haraki said softly, Taji looked at her.

'_Sometimes she really does seem like a princess…' _They walked back and found Michiru and Kari waiting. _'Oh, Mom there are so many Princesses in the Sohma family, not just Haraki…yes, lovely, beautiful, kind Princesses. And I'm so glad I get to spend this time with them…every minute of it.' _Later that night he lay with Michiru, who had finally put her hair down next to him and looked up at the ceiling. _'Tonight…I thing I might just be the luckiest guy in the world…I'm so thankful for everything…' _

-Next Morning-

"I guess it's time to say goodbye." The hostess said to the group, she was leaning on Kari. "But I hope to see you again soon."

"Do you have to lean on me like that?" Kari asked.

"Thank you and take care of yourself." Taji said.

"You as well, Mr. Taji, you as well." The Hostess said.

"Okay, heavy…" Kari said.

"Okay." Taji said.

"I think our driver got lost." Michiru said.

"Oh, Michi." Taji said.

"Hm?"

"I guess after this I won't get to see you for awhile, huh?"

"Huh?" Michiru said.

"And you know, I don't think I know what year you'll be starting in school this spring. Is this your first year of middle school?"

"Oh, no, this year will be my first year in high school and I'll be going to the same school as you! Me and Ruka both!"

"Why you sneaky little…" Kari approached her. "Why didn't you tell us sooner you and Haruka were coming to our school?!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise…" Michiru said.

"Mr. Hadako? Did you not know? Michi is actually a year younger than us, she's Ruka's age."

"But…?" Taji thought. They looked so different! Haruka was taller and by the clothes she wore you could tell she had a pretty well-developed chest already. But Michiru? Michiru was shorter and didn't show a whole lot of development, maybe it was the clothes? She dis dress in what looked like little-girl clothes, all the pink and purple and orange. (Wait, Seiya wears purple…and pink, maybe she just looks the part.)

"All this time I..I thought she was in elementary school…but now she's coming to _our _school and with Haruka? I don't know what's more shocking…"  
"All of it?" Michiru asked.

'_Well, I guess starting this spring, High School is going to be a lot more interesting…' _

-Meanwhile, Seiya's house.-

Seiya was busy hanging up a black jacket on the door way. "There, that's my present for Taji. Nice, huh? The poor boy's gone far too long without a decent coat…" She said.

"Are you trying to get arrested?" Haruka asked, she was sitting and reading. It wasn't the way Seiya said it but how she moved when she said it…

Seiya ignored her and straightened out the coat.

Next Time: Episode 13

_The New Semester! The Mysterious Rina appears!_

**A/N: **I KNOW it's supposed to be the Monkey, but I have other plans for the Monkey of the Zodiac so he won't appear in this story, but in the next instalment...if I ever get it written, it's about the Zodiac's past...


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